
Class _ 
Book_ 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT 



NEW YORK STATE'S 

PROMINENT 

AND PROGRESSIVE MEN 



AN ENCYCL^^ " lA OV CONTEMPORANEOUS 

:IOGRAPHY 



COMPILED BY MITCHELL C. HARRISON 



VOLUME I 



% 



NEW YORK TRIBUNE 

1900 



Libr«< / or 1:0-, e,I^ 

Two 1 jpitj x»ve,.tn 
AUG 18 1900 

S£C('y> copy. 
OROtK OlVtSION, 



Copyright, 1900, by 
The Tribune Association 



7416G 



The De Vinne Prcm 






CONTENTS 

1 

Edward Dean Adams 3 

James Waddel Alexander 5 

Henry B. Anderson ^ 

Avery De Lano Andrews ' ' g i 

Clarence Degrand Ashley . . . 12 

John Jacob Astor 18 ^^ 

WiLLLVM Astor 21 

William Delay an Baldwin 23 

WiLLiAJi Henry Baldwin, Jr . . . . 25 

Amzi Lorenzo Barber 27 

George Carter Barrett 29 

John Richard Bartlett " 33 ^ 

. Henry Rutgers Beekman ' " g. 

Henry Bischofp, Jr ' ' 37 

James Armstrong Blanchard " " " ^^ 

Cornelius Newton Bliss . . . 42 

Emil L. Boas 44 

Frank Stuart Bond ^5 

Henry Weller Bookstaver " " ^g 

Henry Prosper Booth . . . 50 

Sdion Boeg 53 

Archer Brown ' 55 

Alonzo Norman Burbank ' ^g 

Samuel Roger Callaway . . . GO 

Juan Manuel Ceballos g2 

William Astor Chanler ^^ 

Hugh Joseph Chisholji ' ' ' ^^ 

WiLLLAM BOURKE COCKRAN ' ' rj2 

William Nathan Cohen " ' ' ^^ 

Bird Sim Coler . . . 76 

Frank W. Coler ^g 

WiLLLAM Nichols Coler, Jr ' ' g^ 

Washington Everett Connor g2 

Henry Harvey Cook ' g^ 

Paul Drennan Cravath ' gg 

George Crocker 



CONTENTS 

Joseph Francis Daly 91 

Elliot Dankorth 93 

JULIEN TaPPAN DaVIES 95 

William Gilbert Da vies 97 

Charles Wxlloughby Dayton 100 

Henry Wheeler De Forest 102 

Robert Weeks De Forest I04 

Richard Delafield 106 

Chauncey Mitchell Depew lOg 

Theodore Low De Vinne HI 

Frederick Willl\m Devoe II3 

Watson Bradley Dickerman II5 

Edward Nicoll Dickeeson II7 

James B. Dill 119 

Louis F. Doyle 122 

Silas Belden Dutcher 124 

Amos Richards Eno 126 

John H. Flagler 128 

Charles Ranlett Flint 130 

ROSWELL PeTTIBONE FlOWEB I33 

Charles A. Gardiner I35 

Isaac Edwin Gates I37 

Edward Nathan Gibbs I39 

Theodore GiLJLiN 142 

Frank J. Gould I44 

George J. Gould 147 

Sanford Shorter Gowdey 149 

James Ben Ali Haggin 151 

N. Wetmore Halsey I55 

Oliver Habrijian, Jr 157 

George B. McClellan Harvey 159 

Charles Hathaway 161 

Daniel Addison Heald 164 

Arthur Philip Heinze 166 

F. Augustus Heinze 168 

James William Hinkley 170 

Edward H. Hobbs 172 

Eugene Augustus Hoffman 174 

F. C. Hollins 176 

Harry Bowley Hollins 178 

John Hone 180 

William Butler Hornblower 182 

Henry Elias Ho^t^and 184 

Colgate Hoyt 186 

Thomas Hamlin Hubbard 188 

CoLLis Potter Hitn-tington 191 

Clarence MEL\^LLE Hyde 193 

Frederick Erastus Hyde 195 

Henry Baldwin Hyde 197 



CONTENTS 

199 
Darwin R. James ^^^ 

Walter S. Johnston 203 

James Robert Keene 206 

Elijah Robinson Kennedy 209 

Henry Scanlan Kerr ! ' 211 

Robert Jackson Kimball 2-^4 

WiLLiAJi F. King '210 

Darwin Pearl Kingsley 2i8 

Percival Kuhne '220 

John Campbell Latham 202 

Edward Lauterbach 294 

Lysander Walter Lawrence 226 

James D. Layng oog 

J. Edgar Leaycraft 231 

David Leventritt 233 

Adolph Lewisohn 235 

Leonard Lewisohn 237 

Edward Victor Loew ^gg 

Richard Purdy Lounsbery 241 

Edward E. McCall ^^^ 

John Augustine McCall 245 

John Jajies McCook 243 

Thosias Alexander McIntyre ^^^ 

John Savage McKeon ^.^ 

Emerson McMillin ^^^ 

Clarence Hungerford Mackay ". 

John Williaji IVL^ckay ' 

William Mahl '^^^ 

Sylvester Malone " ,-, 

Ebenezer Sturges Mason ~ '" 

Warner Miller "^^ 

Darius Ogden Mills " 

John Pierpont Morgan " p 

Levi Parsons Morton "7 

Robert Prater Munro ^_ 

Walter D. Munson ;:;' 

Lewis Nlxon " „ 

M. J. O'Brien ~^^ 

Daniel O'Day IJ^g 

Alexander Ector Orr "i 

Norton Prentiss Otis 

Francis Asbury Palmer ~' 

Stephen Squires Palmer ^ jj 

John Edward Parsons "1 

William Frederick Piel, Jr ^ 

WiNSLOW Shelby Pierce '1 

Gilbert Motier Plyjipton 

Edward Erie Poor ' 

Henry William Poor 



CONTENTS 

Henry Smallwood Redmond 3J0 

Isaac Leopold Rice 322 

Thomas Gardiner Ritch 3^4 

William H. Robertson 3I6 

Charles Francis Roe 31g 

Theodore Roosevelt 32o 

Ellhu Root 323 

Harry Godley Runkle 326 

Henry Woodward Sackett 328 

Russell Sage 331 

William Salomon 334 

Edward Williaji Scott 336 

John Marston Scribner 333 

John Ennis Searles 340 

Henry Seibert 343 

Henry Seligman 345 

Isaac Newton Seligman 349 

Henry Francis Shoejlaker 354 

Edward Lyman Short 356 

Charles Stewart Smith 353 

Ds Witt Smith 360 

John Sabine Smith 363 

R. A. C. Smith 365 

Frederick Smyth 367 

Elbridge Gerry Snow 369 

George Henry Southard 37I 

Jajies Speyer 373 

John William Sterling 375 

Lispenard Stewart 378 

William Rhinelander Stewart 380 

Jajies Stillman 382 

Gage Eli Tarbell 385 

Frank Tilford 387 

Charles Whitney Tillinghast 389 

Charles Harrison Tweed 391 

Cornelius Vanderbilt 393 

Alfred Van Santvoord 396 

Aldace Freeman Walker 400 

John Henry Washburn 402 

William Ives Washburn 404 

William Henry Webb 406 

Charles Whitman Wetmore 408 

Charles Whann 411 

Clarence Whitman 414 

Stewart Lyndon Woodford 416 

A. M. Young 418 

George Washington Young 420 



PREFACE 

THE history of a modern state is chiefly the histoiy of its 
prominent and progressive men. Ancient history is starred 
with the names of monarchs, conquerors, great soldiers, daring 
adventurers. Only a few great names in industry, commerce, 
and professional life sm-vive. There is some mention, perhaps, of 
the vastness of the multitude that composed city or nation ; but 
of those who really leavened the lump thei-e is little. The mer- 
chant princes, the caj^tains of industry, the practitioners of law, 
who contributed so largely to the greatness and glory of olden 
communities, have vanished as completely from the record as 
have their shops from the forum and their galleys from the sea. 
The latter-day record is more just. Men of thought and men 
of action win their places as surely and as securely as those who 
are born to theirs. The truth of Emerson's saying is more and 
more becoming recognized, that " the true test of civihzation is 
not the census, nor the crops; no, but the kind of man the 
country turns out." It is quality, not merely quantity or num- 
bers, that counts. There are to-day plenty of men of political or 
other distinction, or of vast wealth, known to the world for the 
reason of those conditions. There is in this closing year of the 
nineteenth century being taken in the United States a census 
which will impressively display the aggregated greatness, in 
numbers and in wealth, of the nation. But " the kind of man 
the nation turns out " — not the kind of President, or General, or 
millionaire only, but the kind of average, every-day man in busi- 



I 



PKEFACE 

ness, commercial, industrial, or professional life — is to be shown 
through other mediums than mere statistics. He is to be shown 
in the story of his life. 

It is the aim of the present work, in this and the succeeding 
volumes, to set forth the life-records of a considerable and repre- 
sentative number of the prominent and progressive men of the 
Empire State of the American Union. They are chosen from ail 
honorable walks of life, pubhc and private. They represent all 
political parties, all departments of industry and trade, and the 
various learned professions which fill so large a place m the social 
economy of the modern community. Some of them are in afflu- 
ent and some in moderate financial circumstances. Some of 
them have finished or are finishing then- life-works, and some of 
them are, seemingly, only upon the thresholds of their careers. 
There is no intention nor attempt to choose or to compose a 
class, save as native abiUty and achieved leadership in affairs 
may be the characteristics of a class. There are names on the 
roll that will command instant recognition ; and there are others 
that may have in these pages their first introduction to the gen- 
eral pubUc. The one qualification required, which will be found 
a characteristic of all, is that of such achievement as gives fair 
title to prominence or to a repute for progress. 

A work of this kind is of necessity much like a daily newspaper 
in at least one respect. It deals with things as they are at the 
moment of publication, and as they have been down to that time. 
The next day may materially alter them. Before these pages are 
all read by those who shall read them, new items may be added 
to many a record which will be missing from the book. The 
biographer cannot forecast the future. He can do nothing more 
than to make his story as complete as possible down to the time 
when he lays down his pen, and as accurate as possible, with aU 
research and consultation with the subjects of his sketches. 



f 






EDWARD DEAN ADAMS 



EDWARD DEAN ADAMS, as his name might indicate, 
comes of Puritan ancestiy, and was born in Boston, on 
April 9, 1846. He was educated at Chauncey Hall, Boston, and 
Norwich University, Northfield, Vermont, being graduated from 
the latter in 1864. After two years of travel, chiefly in Europe, 
he entered the banking business, and has since devoted his life 
largely to financial enterprises. 

His first engagement was, from 1866 to 1870, as bookkeeper 
and cashier for a firm of bankers and brokers in Boston. In 
1870 he assisted in organizing the firm of Richardson, Hill & 
Co. of Boston, and remained a partner in it until 1878. Then 
he came to New York and became a partner in the old and 
honored banking house of Winslow, Lanier & Co. For fifteen 
years he was a member of that house, and with it participated 
in many of the most important government, railway, and muni- 
cipal financial negotiations of the active business period from 
1878 to 1893. In the last-named year he retired fi-om the firm 
to devote his attention to various large properties in which he 
had become individually interested. 

While in the firm of Winslow, Lanier & Co., Mr. Adams paid 
especial attention to raih'oad construction and reorganization 
enterprises. Thus he organized, in 1882-83, the Northern Pacific 
Terminal Company, and became its president. In 1883 he 
organized the St. Paul and Northern Pacific Railway Company, 
pro\dded its capital, and served as vice-president. In 1885 he 
organized and constructed the New Jersey Jmiction Raih'oad, and 
planned the reorganization of the New York, West Shore and 
Buffalo Railway, the New York, Ontario and Western Railway, 
and the West Shore and Ontario Terminal Company, and in the 



2 EDWARD DEAN ADAMS 

following year his plans were exactly executed. In 1887 lie res- 
cued the New Jersey Central Railroad from a receivership, and in 
1888 marketed the new issue of bonds of the Philadelphia and 
Reading Railroad. The American Cotton Oil Trust was rescued 
from bankruptcy by him in 1890, and in that same year he be- 
came president of the Cataract Construction Company, at Niagara 
Falls. Finally, in 1893, he became chau-mau of the reorganiza- 
tion committee of the Northern Pacific Railroad. He is now a 
prominent officer of the American Cotton Oil Company, the 
Cataract Construction Company, the Central and South Ameri- 
can Telegraph Company, the West Shore Railroad, and the New 
Jersey Central Raih"oad. 

While some men have gained prominence and fortune as "rail- 
road-wreckers," and as the destroyers of other enterprises for 
their selfish gain, it has been Mr. Adams's happier distinction to 
save industrial enterprises from wreck, and to restore them to 
prosperity. Thus he saved the American Cotton Oil Company 
from what seemed certainly impending bankruptcy, and played 
a leading part in reorganizing the West Shore Railroad Company, 
so as to rescue it from danger and make it the substantial concern 
it now is. His services to the New Jersey Central Raih'oad Com- 
pany were of the highest order, involving the taking it out of 
a receiver's hands and putting it upon its present solvent and 
profitable basis. To the Philadelphia and Reading Raih'oad 
Company, and to more than a few others, he has rendered valu- 
able services on similar lines. It has been his business mission 
to build rather than to tear down, to create rather than to de- 
stroy. This admirable feature of his career has on several occa- 
sions been formally recognized by his associates and by those 
whose interests he has benefited. 

Mr. Adams was mai-ried, in 1872, to Miss Fannie A. Grutter- 
son of Boston, and has a son and a daughter. He is promi- 
nently connected with the National Academy of Design, Museum 
of Natural History, Metropolitan Museum of Art, American 
Fine Arts Society, and American Society of Civil Engineers, 
and is a member of the Union League, MetropoUtan, City, 
Players', Lawyers', Tuxedo, Riding, and Groher clubs, and the 
New England Society, of New York, and the Chicago Club 
of Chicago. 




rm 




JAMES WADDEL ALEXANDER 



FOR many years one of the foremost preachers, teachers, and 
writers of the Presbyterian Chui'ch in the United States 
was the Rev. Dr. James Waddel Alexander, who was pastor of 
leading churches in New York city and elsewhere, a professor 
in Princeton College, editor of the " Presbyterian," and author 
of more than thirty religious books. He was a son of the Rev. 
Dr. Ai-chibald Alexander of Princeton College, and, on his 
mother's side, a grandson of the " blind preacher," James Wad- 
del, who was made famous by William Wirt, Dr. Alexander 
married Miss Ehzabeth C. Cabell, a member of the historic 
Virginia family of that name, of English origin. His own 
family was of Scotch-Irish origin, and was first settled in this 
country in Virginia. 

James Waddel Alexander, the second of the name, was born 
to the fore-mentioned couple at Princeton, New Jersey, on July 
19, 1839, his father being at that time professor of rhetoric and 
belles-lettres at the college there. He was educated at home 
and in various preparatory schools, and finally at Princeton Col- 
lege, being in the third generation of his family identified with 
that institution. On the completion of his academic course he 
adopted the law as his profession, and, after due study, was ad- 
mitted to the New York bar and entered upon practice in this 
city. He was a partner in the fii*m of Cummins, Alexander & 
Green. 

In the vear 1866 Mr. Alexander became actively identified 
with the vast business of life-insurance. He had already paid 
much attention to it in a professional way, and was particularly 
attracted to it through the fact that his uncle, WiUiani C. Alex- 
ander, was president of the Equitable Life Assurance Society of 



4 JAMES WADDEL ALEXANDEK 

New York, one of the foremost institutions of tlie kind in the 
world. In 1866, then, he became secretary of the Equitable, and 
thereafter gave to that great coi-poration a large share of his labor 
and thought, with mutually profitable results. His aptitude for 
the business showed itself, and was recognized presently in his 
promotion to the office of second ^dee-president. From that 
place he was again promoted to the office of vice-president, 
which he still occupies with eminent satisfaction. To his earnest 
labors and far-seeing and judicious pohcy, in conjunction with 
those of his associates, is largely due the unsurpassed prosperity 
of the Equitable. 

But Mr. Alexander has not permitted even that great corpo- 
ration to monopohze his attention. He has found time and 
strength to look after various other business affairs, some of 
them of the highest importance. He is thus a director of the 
Delaware and Hudson Canal Company, of the Mercantile Trust 
Company, and of the Western National Bank, of this city. 

Mr. Alexander has held no pohtical office, and has not figured 
conspicuously in party management. He has long taken, how- 
ever, a deep interest in the welfare of State and nation, as a 
citizen loyally and intelhgently fulfllhng the duties of citizen- 
ship. He has ever been a loyal son of his Alma Mater, the great 
university with which his father and his grandfather were so 
conspicuously identified, and has given to Princeton ungrudg- 
ingly, and to excellent purpose, his time, his labor, his means, 
and his influence. 

Mr. Alexander is at the present time president of the Univer- 
sity Club, and a member of the Century, Metropolitan, University, 
Athletic, Lawj^ers', and Princeton clubs, of New York. He 
was married, in 1864, to Ehzabeth Beasley of Ehzabeth, New 
Jersey, a daughter of Benjamin Wilhamson, formerly Chancellor 
of the State of New Jersey. They have three children, as follows : 
Ehzabeth, wife of John W. Alexander, the well-known artist, 
now resident in Paris, France ; Henry Martjm Alexander, Jr., a 
prominent lawyer, of the firm of Alexander & Colby, of New 
York ; and Frederick Beasley Alexander, who is at this time (1900) 
an undergraduate at Princeton University, in the fourth genera- 
tion of his family in that venerable seat of learning. 




|4^wx>^ (<^ La^vV.^ 



^-<Ka. 



HENRY B. ANDERSON 



THE name of Anderson is evidently derived from Andrew's 
son, or the son of Andrew, and as St. Andrew is the patron 
saint of Scotland, we may expect to find those who bear this 
name to be of Scottish ancestry. Such, at any rate, is the fact 
concerning Henry Bnrrall Anderson. His line is to be traced 
centuries back, among the men who made Scotland the sturdy, 
enlightened, and liberty-loving land it is. In colonial days some 
of its members came to this country and established themselves 
in New England, where they contributed no small measure to 
the growth of the colonies and their ultimate development into 
States and members of this nation. 

The branch of the family with which we are now concerned 
was settled several generations ago in Maine. Two generations 
ago the Rev. Rufus Anderson was one of the foremost divines of 
that commonwealth. His home was at North Yarmouth. He 
was an alumnus of Dartmouth College, and a man of rare 
scholarship and culture. For thirty-four years he was secretary 
of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, 
and for a much longer period than that he was noted as a trav- 
eler, writer, lecturer, and preacher. He died in 1880, as full of 
honors as of years. 

A son of the Rev. Rufus Anderson was Henry Hill Anderson. 
He was bom in the city of Boston in 1827. He was educated at 
WiUiams College, and was graduated there in the class of 1848. 
Selecting the law as his profession, he came to New York city 
to study it and afterward to engage in the practice of it. For 
many years he was one of the foremost members of the New 
York bar, and was prominent in other business matters and in 
social affairs. He was one of the foimders, and for nine years 

5 



6 HENBY B. ANDEESON 

the first president, of the University Club of New York. He 
married Miss Sarah B. Burrall, a daughter of WiUiam P. Burrall 
of Hai-tford, Connecticut, and made his home in Gramercy Park, 
New York city. He died at York Harbor, Maine, in 1896. 

The eldest son of Henry Hill Anderson was born in this city 
in 1863, and was named, after his parents, Henry Burrall Ander- 
son. After a careful preparation he was sent to Yale University, 
and was graduated there in the class of 1885. Following the 
example of his father, he turned his attention to the legal pro- 
fession, and came to this city to study for it. In due time he 
was admitted to the bar, and became a member of the firm of 
Anderson, Howland & Murray, of which his father was the head. 
His attention has since been given with marked earnestness to 
the practice of his profession, and in it he has already achieved 
marked success, with ample promise of succeeding to his father's 
conspicuous rank. 

Mr. Anderson has not yet held pohtical office of any kind, 
though he takes an earnest interest in all that should concern a 
loyal citizen. He is a member of the University Club, of which 
his father was first president, and also of the New York and 
City clubs. He is married to Marie, daughter of Joseph La- 
roeque, the eminent New York lawyer. 

Leaving the old family home on Gramercy Park, he has moved 
up-town to East Fifty-seventh Street, and there founded a new 
home of his own. His summer residence is in the delightful 
suburb of Great Neck, Long Island. 

It may be added that his two younger brothers, WiUiam 
Burrall Anderson and Chandler P. Anderson, followed him at 
Yale, in the classes of 1886 and 1887 respectively, and then came 
on to New York and engaged Hkewise in the practice of law. 
They are both members of the University Club, perpetuating in 
that organization the name and memoiy of its first president, 
and the elder of them abides at the old home on Gramercy Park. 



ej^ 






l/C\.C 




(xOLtl^ 



AYERY DE LANO ANDREWS 



HANNIBAL ANDREWS, merchant, of St. Lawi-ence 
County, New York, was of English stock, fii'st settled 
in this country in Yermont. His wife, Harriet De Lano, was, as 
her name indicates, of French descent, her first American 
ancestor having been Philip de la Noye, who landed in New 
England in 1621, and Captain Jonathan De Lano of New Bed- 
ford, Massachusetts, having been her gi-andfather. To them 
was born at Massena, St. Lawrence County, New York, on April 
4, 1864, a son, to whom they gave the name of Avery De Lano 
Andi'ews. They sent him to the local Union Free School for a 
time, and then he became clerk in a village store. Next he was, 
while imder sixteen years of age, sole proprietor of a small job 
printing-office, the only one within a radius of ten miles. In 
1881-82 he attended Williston Seminary, at Easthampton, Massa- 
chusetts, and then (1882) secured an appointment to a cadet- 
ship at West Point by passing a competitive examination at 
Ogdensburg, ordered by the Hon. Amasa X. Parker. 

Mr. Andi-ews was graduated at West Point in 1886, as No. 14 
in a class of seventy-seven members, and on July 1 of that year 
was commissioned as second heutenant in the Fifth Regiment 
of United States Artillery. He served in that capacity until 
September, 1889, when he was ordered to Washington as an 
aide-de-camp to Lieutenant-Greneral Schofield, commanding the 
United States army, and filled that place until shortly before 
November, 1893, when he resigned his commission and retm-ued 
to civil life. He had been made first lieutenant on November 
28, 1892. While stationed at Washington he found time to pur- 
sue an evening law course at the Columbian University there, 
and then, in 1891-93, at the New York Law School in this city, 



8 AVEET DE LANO ANDKEWS 

in which latter school he was a prize tutor in 1892-94. After 
resio-uing from the army he entered upon the practice of the 
legal profession in this city, in the firm of Wells & Andrews, 
w?th which he is still connected. He is general counsel for 
the Barber Asphalt Paving Company, the National Contracting 
Company, and several other large corporations. 

Mr. Andrews was, when only thii-ty years of age, appointed 
by Mayor Strong a poUce commissioner of New York city, and 
served in that ofBce from February 13, 1895, to January 1, 1898, 
being treasm-er of the department while Colonel Roosevelt was 
president. His performance of the duties of the commissioner- 
ship was of the most admirable character, entitling him to the 
gratitude of the city. 

Mr. Andrews's mihtary career did not end with his resignation 
from the United States army. He was appointed, on November 
10, 1893, major and engineer on the staff of Greneral Fitzgerald 
of the Fu'st Brigade, National Guard of New York, and served 
until February 2, 1898. On March 21, 1898, he became com- 
mander of Squadron A, N. G. N. Y., the famous cavalry organi- 
zation of New York city. On the outbreak of the war with 
Spain his services were tendered to the national government, 
and from May 9, 1898, he was Heutenant-colonel of United States 
Volunteers. On January 1, 1899, he became adjutant-general 
of the State of New York and chief of staff to Governor Roose- 
velt, with the rank of brigadier-general. 

Mr. Andrews is a member of the Century, University, Law- 
yers', Reform, and Church clubs, and the Bar Association of 
New York, the Army and Navy Club of Washington, and the 
Fort Orange Club of Albany. He was married, on Governor's 
Island, New York, on September 27, 1888, to Miss Mary Camp- 
bell Schofield, only daughter of Lieutenant-General Schofield, 
U. S. A. They have now two children, Schofield Andi-ews, aged 
nine years, and De Lano Andi-ews, aged five. 




i 




CL/lAy\.^C^C 



oW.c4^ 




CLARENCE DEGRAND ASHLEY 

IN scarcely any respect is New York city more the metropolis 
of the nation than in that of law. Hither flock aspiring 
practitioners from all parts of the land, hoping to win distinction 
in practice in the coiu'ts, as well as fortune in profitable practice. 
Nowhere is the competition keener, nowhere are the require- 
ments of success greater, and nowhere is the success to be 
attained more marked than here. To this city, too, come hosts 
of young men to study law and gain admission to the bar. They 
find here several great schools of world-wide reputation, besides 
the opportunities of private study in innumerable offices. Of 
these schools none is more widely or more favorably known than 
that of New York University. This institution was planned in 
1836 by the Hon. Benjamin F. Butler, Attorney-Greneral of the 
United States, though its full organization was delayed until 
1859. Associated with it as professors and lecturers have been 
many of the most eminent lawyers of the last half -century, and 
from its halls have emerged, diploma in hand, a veritable army 
of practitioners, including a goodly share of those now most dis- 
tinguished at the bar of this and other States. 

The present head of the university faculty of law is a man 
well worthy of his distinguished predecessors. He comes of 
Puritan ancestry. His forefathers on both sides of the family 
came from England and settled in Massachusetts soon after the 
foundation of the latter colony, and were through many genera- 
tions conspicuously and honorably identified with the develop- 
ment of the New England States. At the middle of the present 
century there were living in the ancient Puritan city of Boston 
one Ossian Doolittle Ashley and Harriet Amelia Ashley, his 
wife. Mr. Ashley is well known as a successful financier and as 

9 



10 CLARENCE DEGEAND ASHLEY 

a wi'iter -upon fiBancial and other topics, and lias been for many 
years president of the Wabash Raih-oad Company. To them 
was born, on July 4, 1851, in then* Boston home, the subject of 
this sketch. 

Clarence Degrand Ashley received a typical New England 
education. After some prehminary instruction in New York 
city, whither his parents had moved in 1858, he was sent to 
the famous Philhps Academy, at Andover, Massachusetts, and 
thence to Yale. From the latter university he was graduated 
in 1873. He had then decided upon his profession, and in order 
to make his preparation for the practice of it as thorough as pos- 
sible he went to Gennany, where he devoted special attention to 
the German language and at the same time entered the Univer- 
sity of Berlin, pursuing courses in Roman Law for two years. 
He then returned to his home in New York, and continued his 
studies, both in school and in an office. The latter was the office 
of Messrs. Scudder & Carter. The former was the Law School 
of Columbia College. He was admitted to the bar of New York 
in 1879, and the next year was gi'aduated from Columbia Law 
School with its degree. 

He now entered upon the practice of the profession in this 
city, in partnership with Mr. Wilham A. Keener, under the firm- 
name of Ashley & Keener. It is interesting to observe that 
Mr. Keener has since become the dean of the Colvmibia Law 
School, as Mr. Ashley has of the university school. A few 
years later Mr. Ashley became a member of the firm of Dixon, 
Williams & Ashley, the senior member being a brother of the 
United States Senator of that name from Rhode Island. Upon 
the death of Mr. Dixon in 1891 the fii'm was reorganized under 
the style of Williams & Ashley. In the affairs of these firms 
Mr. Ashley was always an active and potent factor, and he par- 
ticipated in many important htigations. In 1898 Mr. Ashley 
became associated with a new firm, under the style of Ashley, 
Emley & Rubino, and is still actively engaged in practice with 
that fii"m as its senior partner and general coimsel. As such he 
constantly advises in important corporation and railroad matters. 
Among his many clients are, or have been, the estates of the late 
Samuel J. Tilden, William B. Ogden, and Courtlandt Pahner, 
and the eminent statesman Galusha A. Grow of Pennsylvania, 



OLAEENCE DEGRAND ASHLEY 



11 



whom during six years of litigation he successfully defended 
against an attempt to invahdate his title to valuable coal prop- 
erty in Pennsylvania, formerly owned by the Brady's Bend Iron 
Company. He successfully contested the sale under foreclosure 
of the mining property at Houghton, Michigan, belonging to the 
Centennial Mining Company, and after several months of severe 
contest succeeded in bringing about a compromise whereby the 
rights of the stock-holders were preserved and the company reor- 
ganized upon its present strong basis. He has also for many 
years represented the Wabash Raikoad Company in htigation, 
and advised that company upon many important questions. 
These are a few of the many matters of active practice which 
have occupied Mr. Ashley for years. It was not, however, his 
purpose to confine his activities entirely to the work of any law 
office, no matter how extended. His tastes were academic, and 
he soon began planning the estabhshment of a great school of law. 

His plans were realized in 1891, when the Metropolis Law 
School was founded. Of that admirable institution he was not 
only one of the organizers, but also one of its chief instructors, 
a member of its board of trustees and of the executive com- 
mittee. For several years he did excellent work there, and the 
school flourished. It held sessions in the evenings, thus afford- 
ing facilities for study to many young men who were of neces- 
sity otherwise employed during the day. 

But a few years later, and simultaneously, the Metropolis Law 
School inclined toward absorption into the New York University, 
and New York University decided upon such reorganization of 
its Law School as should bring the latter under university direc- 
tion. The natural and praiseworthy result was the consolidation 
of the two schools rmder the university head. Mr. Ashley was 
made vice-dean, and head of the evening department, a feature 
retained from the Metropolis School. This was in the spring of 
1895. A year later Dr. Austin Abbott, the dean of the univer- 
sity school, died, and on September 16, 1896, Mr. Ashley was 
elected to succeed him. 

In 1895 New York University confeiTed upon him the honor- 
aiy degree of LL. M., and in June, 1898, he received the degree 
of LL. D. from Miami University. 



JOHN JACOB ASTOR 



THERE is probably no name in America more tboroiighly 
identified in the popular mind — and rightly so — with the 
possession and intelligent use of great wealth than that of Astor. 
For four generations the family which bears it has been fore- 
most among the rich families of New York, not only in size of 
fortune, but in generous public spii'it and in all those elements 
that make for permanence and true worth of fame. The build- 
ing up of a great fortune, the estabhshment of a vast business, 
the giving of a name to important places and institutions, the 
liberal endowment of libraries, asylums, hospitals, chm-ches, 
schools, and what not, the administration on a peculiarly gener- 
ous system of a large landed estate in the heart of the metropohs 
— these are some of the titles of the Astor family to remembrance. 
It was a John Jacob Astor who founded the family in this 
country and made it great. In each generation since, that name 
has been preserved, and to-day is borne by its fourth holder. 
The present John Jacob Astor is the son of Wilham Astor, who 
was the son of William B. Astor, who was the son of the first 
John Jacob Astor, He is also descended from Oloff Stevenson 
Van Cortlandt, who was the last Dutch Burgomaster of New 
Amsterdam before the British took it and made it New York ; 
from Colonel John Armstrong, one of the heroes of the French 
and Indian "War ; and from Robert Livingston, who received by 
royal grant the famous Livingston Manor, comprising a large 
part of Columbia and Dutchess coimties. New York. He was 
bom at his father's estate of Fernchff, near Rhinebeck, on the 
Hudson, on Jidy 13, 1864, and was educated at St. Paul's School, 
Concord, New Hampshire, and Harvard University. He was 
graduated at Harvard in the scientific class of 1888, and then 



12 




^S^^^I^^S^^^'^sC'* 




JOHN JACOB ASTOR 13 

spent some time in travel and study abroad. He had already 
made extended tours through the United States, from New 
England to the Pacific coast. His subsequent travels have 
taken him into nearly every European and South American 
country, and he has not been content to follow merely the 
ordinary route of travel, but has made for himself new and 
interesting itineraries. 

Upon his return to his native land Mr. Astor entered upon 
the manifold duties of a good citizen with whole-hearted energy. 
He first familiarized himself with the details of his own busi- 
ness, the management of his gi-eat estate. That, in itself, was a 
gigantic undertaking, but it was performed by him with thor- 
oughness. He also proceeded to improve his estate by the erec- 
tion of various fine new buildings, which are at once a source of 
revenue to him and an ornament to the city. He did not seek 
to avoid even the petty but often onerous duties of a juryman in 
the local courts, but in that and other ways showed himself 
willing to assume all the burdens, great and small, of an Ameri- 
can citizen. He entered into business relations with various 
enterprises, becoming a director of such institutions as the 
National Park Bank, the Title Guaranty and Trust Company, 
the Mercantile Trust Company, the Plaza Bank, the lUinois Cen- 
tral Railroad, the Western Union Telegraph Company, the Equi- 
table Life Assurance Society, the New York Life Insurance and 
Trust Company, the Astor National Bank, etc. 

From an early age Mr. Astor manifested a decided inclination 
toward hterary and scientific work. While at St. Paul's School 
he was the contributor of numerous articles of merit to academic 
pubhcations. In 1894 he published a volume entitled " A Jour- 
ney in Other Worlds : A Romance of the Future." In this he 
dealt with the operations of a new force, styled "apergy," the 
reverse of gravitation. He adopted the theory that the conquest 
of nature would be — or actually had been — so far achieved that 
man had become master of the elemental forces of the imiverse. 
Thus air navigation had become a practical agency of communi- 
cation and transportation. Nor was navigation confined to om- 
ordinary atmosphere. His daring voyagers traversed the inter- 
planetary spaces, and visited Jupiter as easily as we now cross 
the Atlantic. They found in the distant planets strange and lux- 



14 JOHN JACOB ASTOR 

uriant life, with singing flowers, extraordinary reptiles, spiders 
three hundred feet long, railroad trains running three hundred 
miles an hour, and, most marvelous of all, great cities with clean 
streets and good government. This remarkable hterary and 
philosophical extravaganza attracted much attention, and was 
much praised by competent critics for its excellence of style, as 
well as for its daring imagination. It ran through many edi- 
tions here and also in England, and was published in France in 
translation. 

Mr. Astor has long taken an active interest in military affairs, 
and his appointment as a colonel on the staff of Governor Morton, 
in 1895, was recognized as a most fitting one. In that office he 
did admirable service, and identified himseK with the best inter- 
ests of the State troops. But a far more important service was 
before him. At the very outbreak of the Spanish -American 
War, on April 25, 1898, Mr. Astor visited Washington, had an 
interview with the President, and offered his services in any 
capacity in which he might be useful to the nation. At the 
same time he made a free offer of his fine steam-yacht, the 
Nourmalial, for the use of the Navy Department. The latter 
offer was dechned with thanks, after due consideration, the navy 
officers not finding the yacht exactly available for their purposes. 
The tender of personal services was gratefully accepted, and on 
May 13, 1898, Mr. Astor was appointed an inspector-general in 
the army, with the rank of heutenant-colonel. For the duties 
of this place his former experience on the staff of Grovernor 
Morton gave him especial fitness. On May 15 he went on duty 
on the staff of Major-General Breckinridge, inspector-general, 
his first work being a tour of inspection of the mihtary camps 
which had been established in the South. 

In that occupation Colonel Astor found plenty of work, much 
of it of a by no means pleasant character ; but he performed all of 
it with the zeal and thoroughness that have been characteristic 
of him in all his undertakings. There was no attempt to play 
the part of "gentleman soldier." The distinctions of wealth 
and social rank were laid aside at the call of the fatherland, and 
the millionaire became the unconventional comrade of every 
man, rich or poor, who was loyally fighting for the old flag. 

After some weeks of duty in the United States, Colonel Astor 



JOHN JACOB ASTOB 15 

■was ordered to Tampa and to Cuba with the first army of in- 
vasion, and did admirable service. He served with bravery .and 
efficiency during the battles and siege of Santiago, and was rec- 
ommended for promotion by his chief. General Shafter. He 
fell a victim to the malarial fever that prevailed there, but his 
robust constitution brought him safely through an ordeal which 
proved fatal to many of his comrades. After the surrender of 
Santiago he was sent to Washington as the bearer of important 
despatches and other documents to the President. At Tampa, 
on July 27, he and his fellow-travelers were stopped by the State 
sanitary authorities and ordered into quarantine for a few days. 
Colonel Astor took it philosophically, as one of the incidents of 
the campaign, disregarcUng the personal discomfort, and only re- 
gretting the delay in placing before the President the informa- 
tion with which he was charged. Finally the quarantine was 
raised, and Colonel Astor proceeded to Washington and delivered 
his message, and was enabled to do some valuable work for the 
War Department. 

On August 11, the day before the formal signing of the proto- 
col of peace, bvit after the war was practically ended and the 
immediate restoration of peace was fully assured. Colonel Astor 
went on a fm-lough to his home at Ferncliff, and was enthu- 
siastically welcomed by his friends and neighbors of Rhinebeck 
and all the country round. 

Worthy of record, also, is his gift to the government of the 
Astor Battery. At the outbreak of the war he offered to recruit 
and fully equip at his own expense a battery of hght artillery. 
The offer was officially accepted by the government on May 26. 
The next day recruiting was begun. Volunteers flocked in with 
enthusiasm. On May 30 drill was begun. The next day saw 
the battery complete, with one hundred and two men and six 
twelve-pound Hotchkiss guns. The total cost of it to Colonel 
Astor was about seventy-five thousand dollars. After spending 
some time in drilhng, the battery was sent across the continent 
to San Francisco and thence to Manila, where it arrived in time 
to take part in the operation against that city and in its final 
capture on August 13. The guns used by this battery were im- 
ported from England, and were the best of their kind to be had in 
the world. The uniforms worn by the soldiers were of the famous 



16 JOHN JACOB ASTOE 

yellow -brown khaki cloth, such as is worn by British soldiers in 
tropical countries. It was light in textnre, cool and comfortable, 
and in all respects admu-able for the i^urpose. The soldiers also 
had regular service uniforms, of blue cloth with scarlet facings. 
Colonel Astor's immediate connection with the battery ceased 
when he had paid the heavy bills for its organization and equip- 
ment, but it continued to bear his name, and its record in the 
nation's service abides as a lasting memorial of his generous and 
thoughtful patriotism, which led him to give his own time and 
labor, and to risk his own hfe, and also to give freely of his 
wealth to enable others to serve the government in the most 
effective manner. There are, indeed, few names in the story of 
the brief but glorious war of 1898 more honorably remembered 
than that of Colonel John Jacob Astor. 

Colonel Astor was man-ied, in 1891, to Miss Ava Willing of 
Philadelphia. She is a daughter of Edward Shippen WiUing and 
Alice C. Barton Willing, whose names suggest many a chapter of 
worthy American history. Thomas Willing, a gi'eat-gi"eat-grand- 
father of Mrs. Astor, was Mayor of Philadelphia, and first 
president of both the Bank of North America and the Bank of 
the United States. He aided in di-awing up the Constitution of 
the United States, and designed the coat of arms of this govern- 
ment. Another of Mrs. Astor's ancestors was the Hon. C. W. 
Barton, who in 1653 was a conspicuous member of the British 
Parhament. By this marriage Mr. Astor not only aUied himself 
with a family of national distinction, but gained the life-com- 
panionship of a particularly charming and congenial woman. 
Mrs. Astor's native talents and refinement have been added to by 
careful education, well fitting her for the most exalted social 
position. She is, moreover, fond of and proficient in those open- 
au' recreations and sports into which her husband enters with 
keen enjoyment. She is an expert tennis- and golf -player, and 
can sail a boat like a veteran sea-captain. She also possesses the 
not common accomplishment of being a fine shot with a rifle or 
revolver, and on more than one hunting expedition has given 
most tangible evidence of her skill. 

Colonel Astor is a member of numerous clubs in this city and 
elsewhere, including the Metropolitan, Knickerbocker, Union, 
Tuxedo, City, Riding, Racquet, Country, New York Yacht, Down- 



JOHN JACOB ASTOR 17 

Town, Delta Phi, Newport Golf, Newport Casino, and Society 
of Colonial Wars. 

In the fall of 1898 the nomination for Congress was offered to 
Colonel Astor in the district in which his city home is situated, 
but he was constrained by his business and other interests to 
decline it. 

Colonel Astor spends much of his time upon the estate which 
was his father's and upon which he himself was born. This is 
Ferncliff, near Rhinebeck, on the Hudson River. It com- 
prises more than fifteen hundred acres, and extends for a 
mile and a half along the river-bank. About half of it is 
in a state of high cultivation, but much of the remainder is left 
in its native state of wild beauty, or touched with art only to 
enhance its charms and to make them more accessible for enjoy- 
ment. The house is a stately mansion in the Itahan style of 
architecture, standing upon a plateau and commanding a superb 
outlook over the Hudson River, Rondout Creek, the Shawan- 
gunk Mountains, and the distant Catskills. A noteworthy feature 
of the place is the great sei'ies of greenhouses, twelve in number, 
in which all kinds of flowers and fruits are gi'own to perfection 
at all seasons of the year. Rhinebeck and its vicinity are the 
home of many people of wealth and cultm-e, among whom the 
Astors are foremost. 

The Astor home in this city is a splendid mansion built of 
limestone in the French style of Francis I. It stands at the 
corner of Fifth Avenue and Sixty-fifth Street, and is one of the 
chief architectui-al adornments of that stately part of the me- 
tropohs. It was designed by the late Richard M. Hunt, and is 
regarded as one of the masterpieces of that distinguished archi- 
tect. In this house each season some of the most magnificent 
social gatherings of New York occur, for, of course, in this city, 
at Newport, and wherever they go, Mr. and Mrs. Astor are 
among the foremost social leaders. 



WILLIAM ASTOR 

THE Astor family, long representative of that which is fore- 
most in America in wealth, culture, social leadership, and 
pubhc spirit, was also typically American in its origin — or per- 
haps we should say in its renascence — on American soil. For 
there are various versions of its earlier liistory, some declaring it 
to have been of ancient and exalted hneage. However that may 
be, the present chapter of its history opens with a household of 
moderate means and moderate social rank, at Waldorf, in the 
grand duchy of Baden, Germany. A son of that family, John 
Jacob Astor by name, with no means apart from his character 
and indomitable will, came to America in the last year of the 
Revolutionary War, to seek a fortime. He found it in the fur 
trade with the Indians in the Northwest, and invested it and 
vastly increased it in New York real estate. He lived to be 
eighty-one years old, and was actively engaged in business in 
New York for forty-one years. The bulk of his fortune went 
to his son, William Backhouse Astor, who continued to increase 
it, and also to use it wisely for the benefit of his fellow-citizens. 
Then, in the third generation, came one of the best-known 
members of the whole family. 

This was William Astor. He was a son of WiUiam B. Astor, 
and grandson of John Jacob Astor, the founder of the family in 
this country, and he amply inherited the best qualities of both. 
He was born in this city, in the old Astor mansion on Lafaj^ette 
Place, adjoining the Astor Library, on July 12, 1829, and at 
the age of twenty years was graduated from Columbia Col- 
lege. Being of a frank and generous nature, respecting himself, 
loyal to his fi*iends, and enthusiastic and proficient in athletic 
sports, he was one of the most popular men of his time in college. 

18 



WILLIAM ASTOR 19 

On leaving Columbia, he made a long tour in foreign lands, 
especially in Egypt and the East, and thus gained a hfelong 
interest in Oriental art and literature. 

Ml-. Astor returned to this country, and at the age of twenty- 
four was married, and entered his father's office, then on Prince 
Street, as his assistant in administering the affairs of the vast 
properties in houses and lands — in this city and elsewhere — 
belonging to the family. In time half of that estate became his 
own by inheritance. He continued to pay to it the closest 
personal attention, and largely increased its value by improve- 
ments and by purchases of additional property. Thus he main- 
tained the tradition of the Astors, that they often buy but 
seldom sell land. At the same time, Mr. Astor possessed the 
happy faculty of so regulating his business affairs as to leave 
much of his time free foi' recreation and for social engagements. 
He was fond of country life and of farming, and indulged these 
tastes to the full on his splendid country estate, Femcliff, at 
Rhinebeck, on the Hudson River. 

He was also fond of the sea, and spent a considerable part of 
his time in yachting voyages. For this purpose he had built 
the Ambassadress, the largest and probably the finest sailing- 
yacht ever launched. In her he made many voyages. But this 
splendid vessel, built in 1877, did not satisfy him. He loved 
saihng, but wished to be independent of wind and tide. Accord- 
ingly, in 188-1, he built the NourmaJial, a large steam-yacht with 
full rigging for sailing as well as steaming. After various coast- 
ing voyages, he planned to make a trip around the world in the 
JSfoHrmahal, but did not live to carry out the scheme. The Nour- 
mahal was left to his son, John Jacob Astor, while the Ambassa- 
dress was sold to a Boston gentleman and was afterward put to 
commercial uses. Mr. Astor was the owner also of the famous 
sailing-yacht Atalanta, which won a number of important races, 
carrying off as trophies the Cape May and Kane cups. While 
not given to horse-racing, Mr. Astor was fond of fine horses, and 
was the owner of many thoroughbreds. Among these were 
" Vagrant," purchased by him in Kentucky in 1877 ; " Femcliff," 
raised by him and sold as a yearling for forty-eight hundred 
dollars ; and a third which he bought in England in 1890 for fif- 
teen thousand dollars and sold the next year for double that sum. 



20 WILLIAM ASTOR 



i 



One of Mr. Astor's most important business entei-prises was 
Ms development of the State of Florida. He became interested 
in that State during a visit in 1875, and was impressed with the 
o-reat material possibihties of it. He spent much of the next ten 
years in leading a movement for the rebuilding of the State and ^ 
the development of its resources. He built a railroad from St. V 
Auo-ustine to Palatka, constmcted several blocks of fine bmldings 
in Jacksonville, and did many other works, besides enhstmg the 
interest of various other capitahsts in the State. So valuable 
were his services reckoned to the State that the Florida govern- _| 
ment voted him, in recognition of them, a grant of eighty thou- ■ 

sand acres of land. ,^. ^ v " 

Mr Astor was man-ied, op September 23, 1853, to Miss Caroline 
Schermerhom, daughter of Abraham Schermerhorn of New 
York and a member of one of the oldest and most distinguished 
families of that city. For many years Mr. and Mrs. Astor were 
foremost in the best social gatherings of the metropohs. Their 
eminent purity of character, discriminating taste, refinement, and 
generous hospitalities made them the unchallenged leaders of the 
highest social life of New York city. Their favor assured, and was 
necessary to, the success of any movement which depended upon 
social favor. They were both most generous in their charities 
and pubhc benefactions, and equally scrupulous m avoiding 
notoriety on account of them. _ 

The children of Mr. and Mrs. Astor were the following: Jl^mily, 
who died in 1881, the wife of James J. Van Alen of Newport, 
Khode Island; Helen, the wife of James Eoosevelt Eoosevelt; 
Charlotte Augusta, who was married to James Coleman Drayton ; 
Caroline Schermerhorn, the wife of Marshall Orme Wilson ; and 
John Jacob Astor, the fourth of that name and now the head 

of the family. __ , ., ■, „, 

William Astor made his home in New York city, and at 
Rhinebeck, on the Hudson River. He died, universally re- 
spected and lamented, in Paris, France, on April 25, 1892. 



WILLIAM DELAVAN BALDWIN 



THE Baldwin family, which through many generations was 
prominent in many ways in the Old World, was planted in 
North America by John Baldwin, who in early colonial times 
came over the Atlantic and was one of the first settlers in Ded- 
ham, Massachusetts. His descendants played a worthy part in 
the development of the colonies, and in the upbuilding of the 
nation, and are now to be found scattered far and wide 
throughout the States. 

From John Baldwin is descended the subject of this sketch, 
WiUiam Delavan Baldwin, the well-known manufacturer and 
merchant. He was born at Auburn, New York, on September 
5, 1856. His grandfather on the paternal side, Sullivan Bald- 
win, was a native of Bennington, Vermont, and lived for part of 
his life at Hoosac Falls, New York, where his son, Mr. Baldwin's 
father, Lovewell H. Baldwin, was bom. Lovewell H. Baldwin 
removed, in his childhood, to Auburn, New York, and there 
made his home. His wife, Mr. Baldwin's mother, was Sarah J. 
Munson, the daughter of Oscar D. Munson and Sarah L. (Ben- 
nett) Mtmson. 

Mr. Baldwin was educated in the schools of his native city, 
completing his studies with the high school com'se. Then, 
having a decided bent for the mechanic arts, he entered the 
works of D. M. Osborne & Co., manufacturers of reapers, 
mowers, and general harvesting machinery. Beginning in his 
boyhood, and in a subordinate place, he effected a thorough 
mastery of the business in both its mauufactui'ing and its com- 
mercial details. In consequence of his ability and apphcation 
he was from time to time promoted in the service of the com- 
pany, and on attaining his majority he was sent to Europe as its 



22 WILLIAM DELAVAN BALDWIN 

agent in those countries. For five years he filled that important 
place, and discharged its duties with great acceptability, being 
thus instrumental in effecting a great extension of the fii-m's 
business, and also of the prestige of American manufacturers in 
foreign lands. 

This engagement was brought to an end in 1882, by Mr. 
Baldwin's resignation, not only of the European agency but of 
his entire connection with the firm. He took this step in order 
to be able to devote his fullest attention to another industry 
which was then growing to large proportions, and in which he 
had conceived a deep interest. This was the manufacture of 
elevators for conveying passengers and freight in tall modern 
buildings. The firm of Otis Brothers & Co. has already estab- 
Hshed a reputation for such devices. On resigning from the 
D. M. Osborne Company, Mr. Baldwin purchased an interest in 
the Otis Company, and became its treasurer. He devoted him- 
self with characteristic energy and effect to the extension of its 
business and the general promotion of its welfare. He was 
largely instrumental in bringing about the present organization 
of the concern as the Otis Elevator Company, and is now the 
president of that coi-poration. 

In addition to this, his chief business enterprise, Mr. Baldwin 
is interested in various other corporations, and is a director and 
officer of several of them. 

In politics ]Mr. Baldwin has always been a stanch Republican, 
and while he was a resident of the city of Yonkers, New York, 
where the Otis Elevator Woi-ks are situated, he took an active 
interest in political affairs. 

He is a member of a number of clubs and other social organi- 
zations, in New York city and elsewhere. Among these are the 
Union League, the Lawyers', the Engineers', the Racquet and 
Tennis, and the Adirondack League clubs. 

Mr. Baldwin was married in the year 1881 to Miss Helen 
Runyon, daughter of Nahum M. Sullivan of Montclair, New 
Jersey, a prominent New York merchant. Seven children have 
been born to them. 





c^r^zj^—t^c^ 




WILLIAM HENRY BALDWIN, JR. 



NEW ENGLAND has given to all parts of the land a large 
proportion of their most successful and eminent men in all 
walks of life. These are to be found in the ranks of the learned 
professions, in the standard "old line" businesses which have 
existed since human society was organized, and also in the newer 
enterprises which have grown up out of modern inventions to 
meet the needs of the most advanced modern conditions. Among 
the last-named the subject of the present sketch is honorably to 
be ranked. Both his paternal and maternal ancestors were set- 
tled in New England, in the Massachusetts Colony, m the seven- 
teenth centmy, and played an honorable and beneficent part in 
building that colony up into the great State it has now become. 
At the time of their first settlement, such a thing as a railroad 
would have been deemed palpable witchcraft and a device of 
the Evil One. Yet their descendant has become one of the fore- 
most promoters of that "strange device" in this land whei*e rail- 
roads are one of the most familiar and most important features 
of industrial economy. 

William Henry Baldwin, Jr., the well-known president of the 
Long Island Railroad Company, was born in the city of Boston 
on February 5, 1863. His mother's maiden name was the good 
old New England one of Mary Chaffee. His father, William 
Henry Baldwin, was and is a typical Bostonian, identified closely 
^vith the interests of that city, where for more than thirty years 
he has been president of the Young Men's Christian Union. 
The boy received a characteristic Bostonian education — first in 
the unrivaled pubhc schools of that city, then in the Roxbury 
Latin School, and finally, of course, at Harvard University, 
being graduated from the last-named institution as a member of 

23 



24 WILLIAM HENRY BALDWIN, JH. 

the class of 1885. While in college he belonged to the Alpha 
Delta Phi and Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternities, the Hasty- 
Pudding and 0. K. clubs, and was president and leader of the 
Glee Club, and president of the Memorial Hall Dining Associa- 
tion, and was actively interested in all athletic sports. 

After receiving the degree of A. B., Mr. Baldwin took a year's 
course at the Harvard Law School, and then entered the employ 
of the Union Pacific Railroad as a clerk in the auditor's office, 
and later in the office of the general traffic manager at Omaha. 
From June, 1887, to Jtme, 1888, he was division freight agent at 
Butte, Montana; then, to February, 1889, assistant general freight 
agent at Omaha ; and to October, 1889, manager of the Leaven- 
worth division of the Union Pacific at Leavenworth, Kansas. 

In October, 1889, he became general manager, and afterward, 
for a short time, president, of the Montana Union Railroad, a 
feeder of the Union Pacific and Northern Pacific railroads, under 
theu' joint control. 

In August, 1890, Mr. Baldwin was made assistant vice-presi- 
dent of the Union Pacific at Omaha. From June, 1891, to July, 
1894, he was general manager of the Flint and Pere Marquette 
Railroad, in Michigan, and from the latter date to October, 1895, 
third vice-president of the Southern Railroad, with headquai'ters 
at Washington, D. C. 

In 1895 he was made second vice-president of the Southern, in 
charge of both the traffic and operating departments. 

On October 1, 1896, he took charge of the Long Island Rail- 
road as its president, and still occupies that position. He is also 
interested in various other enterprises on Long Island. 

In addition to his business occupations, Mr. Baldwin has paid 
considerable attention to social, economic, and educational 
questions. 

He is a trustee of the Tuskeegee Industrial School for negroes 
in Alabama, and a trustee of Smith College at Northampton, 
Massachusetts. 

He is a member of the University and Harvard clubs of New 
York, and of the Hamilton Club of Brooklyn. 

Mr. Baldwin was married, on October 30, 1889, to Ruth Stan- 
dish Bowles of Springfield, Massachusetts, daughter of the late 
Samuel Bowles, editor of the " Springfield Republican." 



AMZI LORENZO BARBER 



AMZI LORENZO BARBER is a descendant, in the fourth 
-^^ generation, of Thomas Barber, who, with his two brothers, 
came to America in ante-Revohitionary days and settled in Ver- 
mont. They were of Scotch-Irish stock, but were born in Eng- 
land. Mr. Barber's father, the Rev. Amzi Doolittle Barber, 
was graduated from the theological department of Oberhn Col- 
lege in 1841. Oberlin was at that time celebrated for its ad- 
vanced and fearless attitude on the slavery question, just then 
bitterly agitating all classes in the United States. The Rev. 
Mr. Barber, after leaving college, returned to Vermont, where 
for many years he was pastor of the Congregational church at 
Saxton's River, Windham Coimty. His wife was Nancy Irene 
Bailey of Westmoreland, Oneida County, New York, a descen- 
dant of English and French ancestors. 

Amzi Lorenzo Barber was bom at Saxton's River, Vermont, 
in 1843. In his early childhood his parents moved to Ohio, and 
he received his education in that State. He was graduated from 
Oberhn College in 1867, and took a postgraduate course of a 
few months in theology. He then went to Washington and 
assumed the charge of the Normal Department in the Howard 
University, at the request and under the direction of General 
0. O. Howard. After filhng several positions in the university 
he resigned from the staff, and in 1872 went into real-estate busi- 
ness in Washington. 

He devoted much thought and study to questions of street- 
paving and improvements, and they coming finally to claim his 
entire attention, he went into the occupation of constructing as- 
phalt pavement on a large scale. In 1883 the Bai'ber Asphalt 
Paving Company, known all over the country, was incorporated. 

25 



26 AMZI LOKENZO BABBEB 

Besides being at the head of this company, Mr. Barber is a 
director in the Washington Loan and Trust Company of Wash- 
ington, D. C, and in the Knickerbocker Trust Company, West- 
chester Trust Company, New Amsterdam Casualty Company, 
and other companies in New York. 

He is a member of the Metropohtan, the University, the Engi- 
neers', the Riding, and the Lawyers' clubs, the New England and 
Ohio societies, and the American Geographical Society. He is 
a fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers, a patron of 
the Metropohtan Museum of Art, and a member of the Society 
of Arts in London. Mr. Barber's favorite diversion is yachting, 
and he gives much of his time not devoted to business to this 
pleasiu'e. He keeps a steam-yacht in commission throughout 
the season, and has made many voyages, with his family, in 
American waters, the Mediterranean and other European seas. 
He is a member of the New York, the Atlantic, the American, 
and the Larchmont yacht clubs of America, and of the Royal 
Thames Yacht Club of London. 

Mr. Barber has been twice manied. His first wife was Celia 
M. Bradh;y of Geneva, Ohio. She died in 1870, two years after 
her marriage with Mr. Barber. His second wife was Miss Juha 
Louise Langdon, a daughter of J. Le Droict Langdon of Bel- 
mont, New York. They have four children : Le Droict, Lorena, 
Bertha, and Rowland Langdon Barber. The eldest daughter is 
the wife of Samuel Todd Davis, Jr., of Washington. Mr. Bar- 
ber lives most of the year at Ardsley Towers, a large and beau- 
tiful country estate at Irvington, New York. It was once the 
property of Cyrus W. Field. For many years Mr. Barber's town 
house was the Stuart mansion, at Fifth Avenue and Sixty-eighth 
Street, now owned by William C. Wliitney. His winter home is 
the beautiful and well-known Belmont at Washington, D. C. 

Mr. Barber has for many years been a trustee of Oberhn Col- 
lege in Ohio, and takes great interest in the success of that 
institution. 



GEORGE CARTER BARRETT 



UPON the side of his father, the Rev. Gilbert Carter Barrett 
of the Chui-ch of England, Justice Barrett is of Enghsh 
descent. He has in his possession a Waterloo medal which was 
given to his grand-uncle. Lieutenant John Cai'ter Barrett, for 
distinguished gallantry on the field of that "world's earth- 
quake." Upon the side of his mother, whose maiden name was 
Jane M. Brown, he is of Celtic and Irish descent. 

George Carter Barrett was born in Dubhn, Ireland, on July 
28, 1838, and in early life was brought to North America by his 
father, who was sent as a missionary to the Muncey and Oneida 
tribes of Canadian Indians. For six years he lived with his 
father at the Canathan mission, and subsequently went to school 
at Delaware, Ontario, then Canada West. 

At the age of fifteen he came to New York and attended Co- 
lumbia College Grammar-School and Columbia College. At 
the end of his freshman year he was compelled to leave college 
to earn his own hving and to help other members of his family, 
especially a younger brother, who subsequently died at sea. 
When he was sixteen years old he began writing for various 
newspapers. In his work he was greatly aided by Charles G. 
Halpine (" Miles O'Reilly "), who was a good friend to him. At 
eighteen he became a law clerk, and devoted his attention to 
preparing himself to practise law. Upon his majority he was 
admitted to the bar, and at the age of twenty-five was elected 
justice of the Sixth Judicial District Court for a term of six 
years. After serving four years in that place he was elected to 
the bench of the Court of Common Pleas. There he served for 
nearly two years in company with Chief Judge Charles P. Daly 



27 



28 GEORGE CARTER BARRETT 

and Judge John R. Brady, two of the most respected jurists of 
the day. He then resigned his place and went back to his law 
office for two years. In 1871 he was elected a justice of the 
Supreme Court by an overwhelming majority, and at the end of 
his term, foiu*teen years later, was reelected without opposition, 
being nominated by Democrats and Republicans alike. When 
the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court was created, in 
1894, Justice Barrett was appointed one of its original seven 
members. 

Justice Barrett has held no pohtical office, in his high view 
of the case judicial offices being entirely non-political. He has, 
however, taken an important part in political affairs as a lawyer 
and a citizen. He resigned his place on the Common Pleas 
bench just as the popular uprising against the coiTupt Tweed 
Ring was taking form. He promptly identified himself with 
that movement. He was president of the Young Men's Munici- 
pal Reform Association, which strenuously fought against the 
Ring, and was a prominent member of the famous Committee 
of Seventy. He spoke at a great anti-Ring meeting at Cooper 
Union, with Samuel J. Tilden and Henry Ward Beecher, and 
was one of the counsel for the Committee of Seventy and also 
for John Foley in the gi-eat injunction suit against the Ring, 
which was tried before Justice Barnard, and which resulted in 
the appointment of Andrew D. Green as deputy controller, and 
the exposure of the rascalities of the Ring. 

Justice Barrett is a member of the Centuiy, Metropolitan, 
Manhattan, Democratic, Barnard, Riding, and Mendelssohn 
Glee clubs of this city. He was man-ied in November, 1866, 
to Mrs. Grertrude F. Vingut, widow of Professor Francisco Ja- 
vier Vingut, and daughter of Sumner Lincoln Fairfield, the New 
England writer and poet. Only one child was bom to them — 
a daughter, Angela Carter Barrett, now deceased. Justice Bar- 
rett has made his home in New York ever since he came here 
at the age of fifteen. His father died at that time, and his 
mother had died before his father and he left Ireland. He has 
throughout his long and distinguished career commanded the 
fullest measure of esteem and confidence of the entire commu- 
nity, " imsulUed in reputation, either as a man, a lawyer, or a 
judge." 






'[k.^yt6ctJzr 



I 



JOHN RICHARD BARTLETT 



THE paternal ancestors of John Richard Bartlett were, as the 
name indicates, of English origin. The name of Oakes, 
borne by Mr. Bartlett's mother, similarly indicates English an- 
cestry on the maternal side. The Bartletts came to this coun- 
tiy about the year 1700, and settled in Boston, Massachusetts. 
The name has since that date been conspicuously identified with 
the growth of the New England colonies and States. The latter 
fact is equally applicable to the family name of Oakes. 

In the early part of the nineteenth centmy, however, some 
members of the famihes were settled in the British colony of 
New Brunswick. There Richard Bartlett was successively a 
school-teacher, a farmer, a lumber manufacturer, and merchant. 
He married Louisa Oakes, and to them was born at Fredericton, 
New Brunswick, on May 17, 1839, the subject of this sketch. 

John Richard Bartlett was educated at first in the schools of 
Fredericton, then at St. John, New Brunswick, and finally in 
Boston, Massachusetts. He was not, however, left to devote 
his youth imdisturbedly to the pursuit of knowledge. At the 
age of fom-teen he was called from school to work for the sup- 
port of himself and his mother and sisters. Thereafter, with 
invincible determination, he pursued his studies as best he 
could at night, on holidays, and diu-ing the winter seasons. 

His first occupation, at the age of fourteen, was that of carry- 
ing the measiu'ing-Hne for a party of surveyors. Three years 
later he was engaged in designing and l)uilding carriages of 
various kinds ; and so great was his succegs in this work that 
at the age of twenty he engaged in the business of manufactur- 
ing on his own account, at Haverhill and in Boston, Massachu- 
setts. 

29 



30 JOHN RICHARD BARTLETT 

Desiring, however, still more extended scope for his executive 
abihties, he in 1865 engaged in a mercantile career in Boston, 
presently embracing New York city also in his business relation- 
ships. In 1873 he removed his home and office to New York city, 
and has since been chiefly identified with that city's business life. 
His early training in constructive mechanism and his mercantile 
experience proved of gi-eat service to him in laying the founda- 
tions of his eminently successful career. 

Mr. Bartlett is to-day a unique figure in the business life of 
New York, having for the past fifteen years been the moving 
spirit in the creation and reorganization of a number of large 
corporations. A good illustration of his peculiar creative ability 
may be found in his conception and successful creation of the 
great water system now supplying the cities and towns of north- 
em New Jersey. The needs of these large communities had 
for many years baffled all attempts at solution, until Mr. Bartlett 
took up the subject, and gathering about him the necessary 
legal, engineering, and financial aid, formulated and put into 
execution the plans which are to-day responsible for the public 
supplies of potable water to Newark, Jersey City, Paterson, 
Passaic, Montclair, the Oranges, and other communities. This 
successful accomplishment by private enterprise of what the 
State had been trying in vain to do for years did not proceed 
without opposition, but he pushed the work with such com-age 
and vigor that in a short time its completion, in spite of all 
opposition, was an accomphshed fact. The accomplishment of 
this gi'eat work engaged his attention between the years of 1885 
and 1890. 

In the latter year he relinquished the management of the sev- 
eral water corporations which he had created to others, and 
responded to a call from stock-holders and bankers of the 
American Cotton OU Company, to reorganize and rehabihtate 
the mauufactviring and commercial business of that corporation 
in this country and Europe. An idea of the magnitude of this 
work can be had from the mention of the fact that this com- 
pany embraced thirty-five separate corporations, with mills and 
refineries located in seventeen States of the Union, as well as in 
Europe, and involved a capital of more than thirty-three milhon 
dollars. On the successful completion of this reorganization, 



JOHN KICHABD BARTLETT 31 

Mr. Bartlett was elected to the presidency of the company. In 
1893, needing rest, he resigned the presidencj^, leaving the busi- 
ness in a highly prosperous condition, but was almost imme- 
diately elected to the chauTnanship of the Reorganization Com- 
mittee of the Nicaragua Canal Company, which had passed into 
receivers' hands. 

The reorganization of the Nicaragua Canal presented a rather 
complicated problem ; but the plan formulated by Mr. Bartlett 
so well fulfilled the requii'ements of the situation that it received 
unanimous adoption by the stock-holders, and secm'ed to the 
American pioneers in this great work a preservation of the rights 
originally granted the company, and which had been imperiled 
by the financial distress into which the company had fallen 
before he was called upon to take control. 

An outline of the various other enterprises, in the organiza- 
tion or reorganization of which Mr. Bartlett has taken a leading 
part, would require more space than can be allotted to this 
sketch ; but the largest and perhaps most remarkable of his 
achievements was the organization of a great British industrial 
corporation, styled the British Oil and Cake Mills, Limited, with 
a capital of eleven million two hundi-ed and fifty thousand dol- 
lars. This corporation is an amalgamation of twenty-eight mills 
and twelve refineries in Great Britain, engaged in manufactur- 
ing and refining cotton-seed and linseed oil and cake. It is simi- 
lar to big industrial consohdations with which we are familiar 
in the United States, except that, imlike most large American 
industrials, Mr. Bartlett organized it on a cash basis, with abso- 
lutely no " water " in the capital stock. He strenuously opposed 
any attempt at over-capitaUzation, and in this was supported by 
the leading English interests, the good will of each business 
being purchased at its cash value. 

The signal triumph scored by Mr. Bartlett in the creation of 
this British combination attracted considerable attention, both 
in this country and in Europe, because it offered a convincing 
proof that great industrial corporations, against which there is 
such an outcry in this country, can be formed with facility in 
Great Britain, when undertaken with the intelligence, tact, and 
good business judgment which Mr. Bartlett displayed in the 
accomplishment of this work. 



32 JOHN EICHARD BAETLETT 

A catalogue of the places held by IMr. Bartlett in important 
corporations includes the following: managing director of the 
Society for Establishing Useful Manufactures (f oimded by Alex- 
ander Hamilton, in 1772) ; vice-president and treasurer of the 
Maconpin Eailroad ; vice-president of the New Jersey Greneral 
Security Company ; treasurer of the West Milford Water Storage 
Company, and of the Montclair Water Company ; director of the 
Passaic Water Company, of the Acquackanock Water Com- 
pany, of the Fairbanks Company, of the W. J. Wilcox Lard and 
Refining Company, of the Union Oil Company of New Orleans, 
of the Maritime Canal Company, of the Pennsylvania Iron 
Works Company, and of the Siemens and Halske Electric Com- 
pany of Chicago; and president of the Drawbaugh Tele- 
phone and Telegraph Company, of the American Cotton Oil 
Company, of the Niagara Canal Company, and of the Bay State 
Gas Company of Boston. 

At the present time Mr. Bartlett is connected with a large 
number of corporations, in many of which he is a du'ector, and 
is a member of a number of social organizations of the first class 
in several countries, among them being the Union League Club, 
the Lotus Club, the Lawyers' Club, and the New England Soci- 
ety, of New York, the Laurentian Club of Montreal, and the 
American Society of London, England. 




I 



I 





i 



HENRY RUTGERS BEEKMAN 



A MAN who bears a distinguished name, and has himself pur- 
sued a distinguished career, is the subject of this sketch. 
On his father's side he is descended fi-om Gerardus Beekman, a 
sturdy Hollander who was a member of the Council of New 
Amsterdam at the time of the Revolution of 1688, and was for a 
time acting Governor of New York early in the eighteenth cen- 
tury. The father of Henry R. Beekman was Wilham F. Beek- 
man, in his day one of the foremost citizens of New York ; and 
his mother was Catherine A. Neilson Beekman, a daughter of 
Wilham Neilson, a prominent New-Yorker of Irish origin. 

Henry Rutgers Beekman was born in this city on December 8, 
1845. At the age of sixteen he entered Columbia College, where 
he was known as a careful and industrious student. At the end 
of his four years' course he was graduated in the class of 1865, 
and at once entered the Law School of Columbia, from which, 
two years later, he was graduated with the degree of LL. B. He 
was then admitted to the bar, and at once began the practice of 
his profession. For many years he was associated in the practice 
of the law in this city with David B. Ogden and Thomas L. 
Ogden. 

Although he has taken an interest in public affairs all his life, 
Mr. Beekman did not hold office until 1884, when he was ap- 
pointed a school trustee for the Eighteenth Ward. The next 
year Mayor Grace made him park commissioner. The year after 
that he was elected president of the Board of Aldermen, on the 
ticket of the United Democracy. Two years later Mayor Hewitt 
appointed him corporation counsel, to succeed Morgan J. O'Brien, 
who had been elected a justice of the Supreme Court. In this 
latter office Mr. Beekman gained the reputation of being the 



33 



34 HENRY EUTGERS BEEKMAN 

most forcible and effective legal representative New York had 
ever had before the legislative committees at Albany, Governor 
Hill afterward appointed him a member of the commission on 
imiformity of marriage, divorce, and other laws. He also served 
as counsel to the Rapid Transit Commission. Finally, in 1894, he 
was nominated by the Committee of Seventy for a place on 
the Superior Court bench, and was elected by an overwhelming 
majority. "When the new constitution went into force, that 
court was merged into the Supreme Com-t, and he became a 
justice of the latter tribunal. 

While he was president of the Board of Aldermen he secui-ed 
the enactment of the law creating a system of small parks in 
this city, and also estabUshed the pohcy of maintaining pubhc 
bath-houses for the poor in the crowded parts of the city. In 
many other directions he gave his attention to promoting the 
welfare of the people. 

Justice Beekman is a conspicuous figure in the best social life 
of the metropolis. He belongs to many organizations, among 
which may be named the University, Century, Union, Reform, 
Manhattan, and Democratic clubs. He was married, in 1870, to 
Miss Isabella Lawrence, daughter of Richard Lawrence, a promi- 
nent East Indian merchant. They have four children : Jose- 
phine L., Wilham F., Mary, and Hemy R. Beekman, Jr. 

Justice Beekman has, like many other of the "Knicker- 
bockers," a fondness for the old central or down-town parts of 
New York city. He has, therefore, not joined the migration to 
the fashionable up-town region, but still lives in a sohd, old- 
fashioned mansion on East Eighteenth Street. There he has a 
rare collection of old Dutch colonial f m-nitm'e, which he inherited 
from his ancestors, and a valuable collection of paintings and 
other works of art. He has a large Hbrary of weU-chosen books, 
including standard and professional works and the best cuiTent 
hteratiu*e of a hghter vein, and in it much of his time is spent. 



i 



HENRY BISCHOFF, JR. 



IN common with a large number of New York's most active 
and useful citizens in all professions and business callings, 
Judge Biscboff is of German descent. His grandfather was a 
famous church buOder at Achim, Prussia, and also a lumber 
merchant and brick manufactiu-er. His father, Henry Bischoif, 
gained prominence as a banker. He was a resident of this city, 
and here his son, the subject of this sketch, was born, on August 
16, 1852. 

Henry Biscboff, Jr., was carefully educated, at first in the 
pubUc schools of New York, then at the Bloomfield Academy at 
Bloomfield, New Jersey, and then under a private tutor. After- 
ward came his professional and technical education, which was 
acquired in the Law School of Coliunbia College, from which he 
was graduated, with honorable mention in the Department of 
PoUtical Science, in 1871. For two years thereafter he read law 
in the office of J. H. & S. Riker, and then, in 1873, was admitted 
to practice at the bar. 

His fijst ofl&ce was opened in partnership with F. Leaiy, and 
that connection was maintained until 1878. The partnership 
was then dissolved, and Mr. Biscboff continued his practice 
alone, and has since remained alone in it. From the beginning 
he addressed himself exclusively to civil practice, and especially 
to cases invohang real-estate interests and those before the Sur- 
rogate's Com-t. In these important branches of litigation he 
rapidly rose to the rank of a leading authority. 

He had not long been practising before he became interested 
in pohtics as a member of the Democratic party, and his abihty 
being recognized, pohtical preferment was presently within his 
grasp. He was appointed to collect the aiTears of personal taxes 
in this city, a task of considerable magnitude. The duties of 
that place were discharged by him effectively, and to general 

33 



36 HENEY BISCHOFF, JK. 

satisfaction, for nearly ten years. Then, in 1889, he was elected 
a judge of the Court of Common Pleas. Five years later that 
court was merged into the Supreme Court, whereupon he became 
a justice of the latter tribunal, which place he still occupies. 
With two other justices he holds the Appellate Term, before 
which all appeals from the lower courts are taken. 

Early in his career, during and just after his work in coUege, 
Mr. Bischoff had not a little practical experience in his father's 
banking-house, at times occupying a place of high trust and re- 
sponsibihty there. This business and financial framing has 
proved to be of great value to him in his legal and judicial life, 
giving him an expert knowledge of financial matters, which are 
so often brought into court for adjudication, and adding to his 
professional qualities the no less unportant qualities of a practical 
business man. 

Mr. Bischoff was one of the founders of the Union Square 
Bank, and is still a director of it. He belongs to the Tammany 
Society, the Manhattan and Democratic clubs, the German, 
Arion, Liederkranz, and Beethoven societies, and various other 
social and professional organizations. He comes of a music- 
loving family, and is himself a fine performer upon the piano and 
other instruments. He is also an admirable German scholar, 
speaking the language with purity, and cultivating an intimate 
acquaintance with its literatm-e. 

He was married, in 1873, to Miss Annie Moshier, a daughter of 
Frederick and Louise Moshier of Connecticut. They have one 
daughter, who bears her mother's name. 

Justice Bischoff has invariably commanded the cordial esteem 
of his colleagues at the bar and upon the bench, and has fre- 
quently l)een the recipient of tangible proofs of their regard. A 
well-deserved tribute to him is contained in James Wilton 
Brooks's " History of the Court of Common Pleas," in the 
following words : 

" His moral courage, his self-reliance, his independence of char- 
acter, his firm adherence to the right cause, have rendered his 
decisions more than usually acceptable to the bar. Though one 
of the youngest judges on the bench, he has become ah-eady 
noted for his industry, his uniform courtesy, and the soundness 
of his decisions." 




ri- Urni-'.-^Sr, 



^j^^yC^t-.-.^oi 




JAMES ARMSTRONG BLANCH ARD 



JAMES ARMSTRONG BLANCHARD was born, in 1845, 
at Henderson, Jefferson County, New York. His father 
was of mingled English and French Huguenot and his mother 
of Scotch descent. When he was nine years old the family 
moved to Fond du Lac County, Wisconsin. A few years later 
the elder Blanchard died, leaving the family with little means. 
The boy was thus thrown upon his own resom-ces in a struggle 
against the handicap of poverty. For some years he worked on 
the farm, attending the local school in winter. 

Before he attained his majority, however, he left the farm for 
the army, enlisting, in the summer of 186-4, in the Wisconsin 
Cavalry. He served through the war, and was honorably mus- 
tered out in November, 1865. His health had been impaired by 
the exposures and privations of campaigning, and he went back 
to the farm for a few months. With health restored, he entered 
the preparatory coiu'se of Ripon College. From that course he 
advanced duly into the regular collegiate course. He was still 
in financial straits, and was compelled to devote some time to 
teaching to earn money for necessary expenses. In spite of this, 
he maintained a high rank in his class, and was graduated in the 
classical course, with high honors, in 1871. During the last two 
years of his course he was one of the editors of the college paper. 

On leaving Ripon Mr. Blanchard came to New York and en- 
tered the Law School of Columbia College. Dm-ing his course 
there he supported himself by teaching. He was graduated in 
1873, and was admitted to practice at the bar. Forthwith he 
opened and for eight years maintained a law office alone, build- 
ing up an excellent practice. In 1881 he became the senior 
member of the firm of Blanchard, Gay & Phelps, which, the next 

37 



38 JAMES ARMSTRONG BLANCHARD 

year, moved into its well-known offices in the Tribune Building. 
The firm had a prosperous career, figuring in numerous cases 
involving large interests. It was dissolved in 1896, and since 
that time IVIi". Blanchard has continued alone his practice in the 
offices so long identified with the firm. 

For many years Mr. Blanchard has been one of the foremost 
leaders of the Repubhcan party in this city. He has been presi- 
dent of the Repubhcan Club of the City of New York, which is 
one of the best-known and most infiuential social and pohtical 
clubs of the metropolis, and he was one of its five members who, 
in 1887, formed a committee to organize the National Conven- 
tion of Repubhcan Clubs in this city that year. He was active 
in the fonnation of the Republican League of the United States, 
and for four years was chairman of its sub-executive committee. 
He was a member of the Committee of Thirty which, a few years 
ago, reorganized the Republican party organization in this city, 
and a member of the Committee of Seventy that brought about 
the election of a reform mayor in 1894. 

Although often importuned to become a candidate for pohtical 
office, Mr. Blanchard steadily refused to do so, declaring that his 
ambition was to occupy a place upon the judicial bench. This 
ambition was fulfilled in December, 1898. At that time Justice 
Fitzgerald resigned his place in the Coui*t of General Sessions to 
take a place on the bench of the Supreme Court. Thereupon 
Governor-elect Roosevelt selected Mr. Blanchard to be his suc- 
cessor, and in January, 1899, made the appointment, which met 
with the hearty approval of the bar of this city. 

Judge Blanchard is a member of the Bar Association, the 
American Geogi*aphical Society, the Union League Club and the 
latter's Committee on Pohtical Reform, Lafayette Post, G. A. R., 
and various other social and political organizations. He is mar- 
ried, and has one child, a son, who is a student at Philhps Exeter 
Academy. 






'^^>7^7U>i^c^^^^^ 




CORNELIUS NEWTON BLISS 



AMONG the citizens whom this city, and indeed this nation, 
J\. might most gladly put forward as types of the best citi- 
zenship, in probity, enterprise, and culture, the figure of Corne- 
lius Newton Bliss stands conspicuous. As merchant, financier, 
political counselor, social leader, and public servant, he holds 
and has long held a place of especial honor. He comes of that 
sturdy Devonshire stock which did so much for old England's 
greatness, and is descended from some of those Pm-itan colonists 
who laid in New England unsurpassed foundations for a Greater 
Britain on this side of the sea. His earliest American ancestor 
came to these shores in 1633, and settled at Weymouth, Massachu- 
setts, afterward becoming one of the founders of Rehoboth, in the 
same colony and State. The father of Mr. Bliss lived at Fall River, 
Massachusetts, and in that busy city, in 1833, the subject of this 
sketch was born. While Cornelius was yet an infant his father 
died, and his mother a few years later remarried and moved to 
New Orleans. The boy, however, remained in Fall River with 
some relatives of his mother, and was educated there, in the 
common schools and in Fiske's Academy. At the age of four- 
teen he followed his mother to New Orleans, and completed his 
schooling with a course in the high school of that city. 

His first business experience was acquired in the counting- 
room of his stepfather in New Orleans. His stay there was 
brief, and within the year, in 1848, he returned to the North, 
and found employment with James M. Beebe & Co., of Boston, 
then the largest dry-goods importing and jobbing house in the 
country. His sterling worth caused his steady promotion until 
he became a member of the firm which succeeded that of Beebe 
& Co. In 1866 he formed a partnership with J. S. and Eben 

39 



40 CORNELIUS NEWTON BLISS 

Wright of Boston, and established a dry-goods commission 
house under the name of J. S. & E. Wright & Co. A branch 
office was opened in New York, and Mr. Bliss came here to take 
charge of it. Since that time he has been a resident of this city 
and identified intimately with its business, political, and social 
life. Upon the death of J. S. Wright, the firm was reorganized 
as Wright, Bliss & Fabyan. Still later it became Bliss, Fabyan 
& Co., of New York, Boston, and Philadelphia, with Mr. BHss 
at its head. Such is its present organization. For many years 
it has ranked as one of the largest, if not the very largest, of 
dry-goods commission houses in the United States, its office and 
its name being landmarks in the dry-goods trade. 

Upon his removal to New York, IVIr. Bliss became identified 
with the interests of this city in a particularly prominent and 
beneficent manner. There have been few movements for pro- 
moting the growth and welfare of New York in which he has 
not taken an active part, giving freely his time, services, and 
money for then- success. He has been influential in business 
outside of his own firm, being vice-president of the Chamber of 
Commerce, vice-president and for a time acting president of 
the Fourth National Bank, a director of the Central Trust Com- 
pany, the Equitable Life Assiirance Company, and the Home 
Insurance Company, and governor and treasurer of the New 
York Hospital. 

In politics Mr. Bliss has always been an earnest Repubhcan, 
devoted to the principles of that party, and especially to the 
national policy of protection to American industries. For 
some years he has been the president of the Protective Tariff 
League. From 1878 to 1888 he was chairman of the Repubh- 
can State Committee. President Arthur offered him a cabinet 
office, but he decUned it. In 1884 he led the Committee of One 
Hundred, appointed at a great meeting of citizens of New York 
to urge the renomination of Mr. Arthur for the Presidency. In 
1885 he declined a nomination for Governor of New York, and 
he has at various other times dechned nomination to other high 
offices. For years he was a member of the Republican County 
Committee in this city, and also of the Republican National 
Committee, of which latter he was treasurer in 1892. He has 
been active in various movements for the reform and strength- 



CORNELIUS NEWTON BLISS 41 

ening of the Republican party in this city, and has often been 
urged to accept a nomination for Mayor. He was a leading 
member of the Committee of Seventy in 1894, and of the Com- 
mittee of Thu'ty, which reorganized the Repubhcan local organ- 
ization. 

Mr. Bliss accepted his first public office in March, 1897, when 
President McKinley appointed him Secretary of the Interior in 
his cabinet. He was reluctant to do so, but yielded to the 
President's earnest request and to a sense of personal duty to 
the public service. He filled the office with distinguished abil- 
ity, and proved a most useful member of the cabinet as a general 
counselor in all great affairs of state. At the end of 1898, how- 
ever, having efficiently sustained the President through the 
trying days of the war with Spain, and having seen the treaty 
of peace concluded, he resigned office and returned to his busi- 
ness pursuits. 

Mr. Bhss is a prominent member of the Union League Club, 
the Century Association, the Republican Club, the Metropolitan 
Club, the Players Club, the Riding Club, the Merchants' Club, 
the American Geographical Society, the National Academy of 
Design, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the American Museum 
of Natural History, and the New England Society of New York. 




EMIL LEOPOLD BOAS 

THE name of Boas is of English origin. The family which 
hears it was, however, prior to the present generation, 
settled in Germany. Two generations ago Louis Boas was a 
prosperous merchant, and he was followed in his pursuits and 
in his success by his son. The latter married Miss Mina Asher, 
and to them Emil Leopold Boas was born, at Groerlitz, Prussia, 
on November 15, 1854. The boy was sent first to the Royal 
Frederick William Gymnasium, at Breslau, and then to the 
Sophia Gymnasium of Berhn. 

At the age of nineteen he entered the office of his father's 
brother, who was a member of the firm of C. B. Richard & Boas 
of New York and HambTirg, bankers and general passenger 
agents of the Hamburg- American Line of steamships. After a 
year he was transfen'ed to the New York office. In 1880 Mr. 
Boas was made a partner in the Hamburg end of the firm. He 
had scarcely arrived there, however, when he was recalled and 
made a member of the New York firm also. 

Ten years later he withdrew from the firm, and took a vaca- 
tion. During that time the Hambm'g- American Line established 
offices of its own in New York. Mr. Boas was thereupon ap- 
pointed general manager of the Hamburg- American Line, which 
office he has continued to hold up to the present time. He now 
has supervision and management of all the interests of the 
Hamburg- American Line on the American continent. He is 
also president of the Hambiu'g-American Line Terminal and 
Navigation Company. It may be mentioned that the Hambm-g- 
Ameriean Line, owning over two hundi-ed vessels, is probably 
the largest steamship enterprise in the world. 

Mr. Boas has acted in a semi-pubhc capacity as the represen- 

42 



I 




.^)AyuuC£^-^. 



EMIL LEOPOLD BOAS 43 

tative of the New York shipping interests on a number of 
occasions, taking the lead in urging upon Congress the need of a 
deeper and more commodious channel from the inner harbor of 
New York to the ocean. He has taken a similar part in the 
movement for the extension of the pier and bulkhead lines so as 
to meet the enlarged requirements of modem shipping, and in 
the improvement of the New York State canals, being treasurer 
and chau'man of the finance committee of the Canal Association 
of Greater New York. 

Ml". Boas has found time to travel extensively in America and 
Em'ope, and to devote much attention to literature and art. He 
has a private library of thirty-five hundred volumes, largely on his- 
tory, geography, political economy, and kindred topics. The 
German Emperor has made him a Knight of the Order of 
the Red Eagle, the King of Italy a Chevalier of the Order of St. 
Maui'itius and St. Lazarus. The King of Sweden and Norway 
has made him a Kuight of the first class of the Order of St. Olaf, 
the Sultan of Turkey a Commander of the Order of Medjidjie? 
and the President of Venezuela a Commander of the Order 
of Bolivar, the Liberator. 

In New York Mr. Boas is connected with numerous social 
organizations of high rank. Among these are the New York 
Yacht Club, the New York Athletic Club, St. Andrew's Golf 
Club, the National Arts Club, the Deutscher Verein, the Lieder- 
ki-anz, the Unitarian Club, the Patria Club, the German Social 
and Scientific Club, the American Geographical Society, the 
American Statistical Society, the American Ethnological Society, 
and the American Academy of Political and Social Science, the 
New York Zoological Society, the American Museum of Natural 
History, the Metropohtan Museum of Art, the German Society, 
the Charity Organization Society, the Maritime Association, the 
Produce Exchange, and the Chamber of Commerce of the State 
of New York. 

Mr. Boas was married in New York, on March 20, 1888, to 
Miss Harriet Betty Sternfield. They have one child, Herbert 
Allan Boas. Mrs. Boas came from Boston, Massachusetts, and 
is identified with the New England Society, the Women's Phil- 
harmonic Society, the League of Unitarian Women, and various 
other organizations. 



FRANK STUART BOND 



THE Bond family in England is an ancient one, its authen- 
tic records dating as far back as the Norman Conquest, 
and many of its members have risen to eminence. In the United 
States, or rather in the North American colonies, it was planted 
early. Its first member here was William Bond, gi-andson of 
Jonas Bond, and son of Thomas Bond of Bury St. Edmunds, 
Suffolk, England, who was brought to this country in his boy- 
hood, in 1630, by his aunt, Elizabeth Child. They settled at 
Watertown, Massachusetts, on the Jennison farm, which re- 
mained in the possession of the family for more than one hun- 
dred and seventy years. From Wilham Bond, the sixth in direct 
descent was Alvan Bond of Norwich, Connecticut, an eminent 
Congregational minister, who married Sarah Richardson, and to 
whom was born, at Sturbridge, Massachusetts, on February 
1, 1830, the subject of this sketch. 

Frank Stuart Bond was educated at the Norwich Academy, 
and at the high school at Hopkinton, Massachusetts. He then 
entered the raih'oad business, which was beginning to develop 
into great proportions. His first work was in the office of the 
treasTirer of the Norwich and Worcester Railroad, in 1849-50. 
Next he went to Cincinnati, entered the service of the Cin- 
cinnati, Hamilton and Dayton Railroad, and became its secretary. 
In 1856 he came to New York, and from 1857 to 1861 was secre- 
tary and treasurer of the Auburn and Allentown and Schuylkill 
and Susquehanna railroads. 

The war called him into the service of the nation. He was 
in 1862 commissioned a lieutenant of volunteers in the Connec- 
ticut State troops, and went to the front as an aide on the staff 
of Brigadier- General Daniel Tyler. He served imder General 

44 



FRANK STUART BOND 45 

Pope in Mississippi, at Farmington, and in other engagements 
leading to the capture of Corinth. Then he went upon the 
staff of General Rosecrans, commanding the Army of the Crmi- 
berland. He was at Stone River, Tullahoma, Chickamauga, and 
Chattanooga. Finally he went into the Missouri campaign, and 
served until November 18, 1864, when he resigned his commis- 
sion. 

He returned to railroading in 1868, when he became connected 
mth the Missoui'i, Kansas and Texas Railroad Company, then 
recently organized. He resigned its vice-presidency in 1873, and 
became vice-president of the Texas and Pacific Company, in 
which capacity he served mitil 1881. He then became for two 
years president of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad, in a 
trying time in the history of that company. From 1884 to 1886 
he was president of five associated raih'oad companies — the Cin- 
cinnati, New Orleans and Texas Pacific, the Alabama and Great 
Southern, the New Orleans and Northeastern, the Yicksburg 
and Meridian, and the Vicksburg, Shreveport and Pacific. The 
combination operated some eleven hundred and fifty-nine miles 
of completed road. Then in 1886 he became vice-president of 
the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railroad, and still remains 
in that office, with headquarters in the city of New York. 

Mr. Bond has not been conspicuous in public life, nor has 
he taken more than a citizen's interest in pohtics. He is a mem- 
ber of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United 
States, and also of the Society of the Sous of the American Revo- 
lution, Union League, Union, Century, and Metropolitan clubs. 

Mr. Bond's life-work has been given, save for his military 
careei", almost exclusively to railroading, which has long been 
one of the foremost industries of this nation. It has, however, 
been sufficiently varied in its scope to give him a wide experience 
and knowledge of the laud of his birth, and of the people who 
are his countrymen. He has put his personal impress upon 
many important lines of transportation in various parts of the 
Union, and of the developments of American railroads in the 
last fifty years can truly say, " All of them I saw, and a large 
part of them I was." 



i 



HENRY WELLER BOOKSTAVER 

BUCHSTABE was the original form of the name now known 
as Bookstaver, and it was borne, in the sixteenth century, 
by a notable religious reformer of Switzerland, Henry Buchstabe. 
The family thereafter removed to Germany and to Holland, and 
at the beginning of the eighteenth century one Jacobus Boock- 
stabers, a hneal descendant of Henry Buchstabe, came to this 
country and settled in Orange County, New York. One of his 
direct descendants was Daniel Bookstaver, who married Miss 
Alletta Weller, a lady of Teutonic descent, and lived at Mont- 
gomery, Orange County, New York. 

To this latter couple was born at Montgomery, on September 
17, 1835, a son, to whom they gave the name of Henry, in memory 
of his famous ancestor, the Swiss reformer, and that of Weller, 
in memory of his mother's family. The boy was educated at 
the academy at Montgomery, and then at Rutgers College, New 
Brunswick, New Jersey. From the latter institution he was 
graduated A. B., with high honors, in 1859, and from it he 
subsequently received the degrees of A. M. and LL. D. 

Henry Weller Bookstaver then decided upon the practice of 
the law as his hfe-work. He entered as a student the office of 
Messrs. Brown, Hall & Vanderpoel in this city, and by 1861 was 
able to pass his examination and be admitted to the bar. A ht- 
tle later he was made a partner in the firm with which he had 
studied. Since that time he has constantly been in successful 
practice of the law in this city, with the exception of the con- 
siderable period during which he has been on the judicial bench. 
He has had a large and lucrative private practice, and has also 
been attorney to the sheriff, coimsel to the Police Board, and 
counsel to the Commissioners of Charities and Corrections. 

46 





^L-^T^ 



^-'X^ 



HENKY WELLER BOOKSTAVER 47 

His defense of Sheriff Reilly gave him the reputation of one 
of the most eloquent pleaders at the bar of this city. 

Mr. Bookstaver was elected a justice of the Court of Common 
Pleas in 1885, and had an honorable career on that bench. He 
was retained in that office until 1896, when the Court of Com- 
mon Pleas was merged into the Supreme Court, and then he 
became a justice of the latter tribunal, which place he still 
adorns. 

The judicial office is, of course, in a large measure removed 
fi-om pohtics. Considerations of poHtics are not supposed to 
enter into the influences which determine judicial decisions. 
Nevertheless, under om- system judges are largely elected on 
pohtical tickets, as party candidates, and it not infrequently hap- 
pens that an earnest partizan becomes an impartial and most 
estimable judge. Such is the case with Justice Bookstaver. He 
has long been an active member of the Democratic party, and 
was, before his elevation to the bench, interested in its activities. 
His engagements as counsel to various city officers and depart- 
ments were semi-political offices. For fifteen years, however, he 
has been on the bench, the dispenser of impartial justice without 
regard to party politics. 

Important as his professional and official work has been, it has 
not entirely absorbed Justice Bookstaver's attention. He has 
found time to cultivate litei-ary and artistic tastes, and to do 
much for then- promotion in the community. He has often 
served as a public speaker at dinners and on other occasions. 
He is a member of the Archeeological, Geographical, and Histor- 
ical societies of this city, and also of the Metropohtan Museum 
of Art and of the Museum of Natural Historj-. He has retained 
a deep interest in the welfare of his Alma Mater, Rutgers Col- 
lege, and is a member of its board of trustees. 

Justice Bookstaver is a member of the Manhattan, St. Nicho- 
las, and Zeta Psi clubs of this city, and was one of the founders 
of the last-named. He is also a member of the Casino Club of 
Newport, Rhode Island. 

He was married, on September 6, 1865, to Miss Mary BayHss 
Yoimg of Orange County, New York. 



HENUY PROSPER BOOTH 



ONE of the foremost names in the shipping world of New 
York to-day is that of Henry Prosper Booth, long identi- 
fied with the famous " Ward Line " of steamships. He is of New 
England ancestry, and was born in New York city on July 19, 
1836. His education was acquired in local schools and in the 
Mechanics' Institute, and was eminently thorough and practical. 

His business career was begun as a clerk for a firm of shipping 
merchants, and thus was begun his lifelong alliance and identifi- 
cation with the commercial interests of the port of New York. 
In 1856 he was admitted to partnership in the firm of James E. 
Ward & Co., and in time became the head of that firm, and finally 
president of the New York and Cuba Mail Steamship Line, 
commonly known as the " Ward Line." 

He is a member of the Manhattan and Colonial clubs of New 
York, and is weU known in social circles. The dominant feature 
of his busy life, however, has been his devotion to shipping and 
commercial interests, and the true and characteristic record of 
his life is found in the great cormnercial establishment of which 
he is the head and of which he has long been the directing force. 

The Ward Line is one of the most important fieets of coast- 
wise steamships in the world. Its home port is New York. 
From New York its swift, stanch vessels ply with the regularity 
of shuttles in a loom to the Bahamas, Cuba, and Mexico. They 
touch at numerous ports of Cuba and all the Gvilf ports of Mexico, 
and with their extensive railroad connections afford access to all 
parts of those countries. There are practically four distinct 
routes from New York, and many more short side routes in the 
Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, in aU covering about 
ten thousand miles of service. 



48 







a^<:5^/^^^ 




HENRY PROSPER BOOTH 



49 



The fleet comprises the steamers Havana and Mexico, of 6000 
tons each ; the VujUancia and Seguranca, of 4115 tons each ; the 
Yucatan and Orizaba, of 3500 tons each ; the Matanzas, of 3100 
tons ; and the Saratoga, City of Washington, Santiago, Niagara, 
Cienfmgos, Cittj of San Antonio, Santiago de Ctiha, Hidalgo, 
Cometa, Hebe, Juno, Manteo, Edwin Bailey, Atlantica, and Moran, 
of from 2820 tons down. At this writing there are under con- 
struction two more steamships of 5000 tons each and one of 
7000. 

The steamers of the Ward Line embrace as stanch and com- 
fortable ships as are in service from any part of the world. 
They are new full-powered steamers, of most modern construc- 
tion, built expressly for the service, and they offer aU the liixu- 
ries of travel, including a most excellent and well-maintained 
cuisine, large and well-ventilated state-rooms, perfect beds, electric 
hghts, handsome smoking-rooms and social halls, baths and 
barber shops, and all details necessary to insure comfort to the 
traveler in the tropics. 

The freight facilities of these steamers have also been carefully 
provided for, and they are equipped with necessary appHances to 
provide not only for heavy machinery, etc., but also for fresh 
vegetables, fresh beef, etc., which places them in the lead of all 
means of transportation for rapidly advancing commercial indus- 
tries between this country and its Southern neighbors. 




SIMON BORG 

A FINE example of the " self-made " man is found in Simon 
Borg, the well-known banker and railroad president. He 
is of Grerman origin, having been born on Api"il 1, 1840, at 
Haupersweiler, a village in the Rhine Province of Prussia. His 
father, Model Borg, was a merchant, and was of Grerman birth, 
though his ancestors came from Holland and, still earlier, from 
Sweden. His mother, Babetta Borg, was of pure Grerman stock. 

Simon Borg was educated in Gennany until he was fourteen 
years old. Then he was left an orphan, both his parents dying 
within about fifteen months. He was the eldest of four chil- 
dren, and was largely thrown upon his own efforts for support. 
For a couple of years he remained in Germany, seeking to find a 
promising opening in some business, but without success. He 
then decided to emigrate to the United States. This he did, 
landing in New York, and thence proceeding to Memphis, Ten- 
nessee. 

At Memphis he apprenticed himself to the firm of N. S. Bruce 
& Co., carriage manufacturers, in the trimming department, and 
from his seventeenth to his twenty-first year worked at the trade. 
His wages were two dollars and a half a week the first year, 
three dollars and a half a week the second year, five doUars the 
third, and seven dollars the fourth year of his apprenticeship. 
He was, however, pei-mitted to work overtime and to earn extra 
pay, and thus he was enabled to make a comfortable living. 
Moreover, he received much encouragement from his employ- 
ers, who appreciated his efforts and took an interest in his wel- 
fare. 

After completing his apprenticeship IVIi*. Borg worked for sev- 
eral years as a journeyman. But the Civil War had so im- 

50 



SIMON BOUG 51 

poverislied the people of the South that for a time there was 
httle demand for fine caiTiages, and he was accordingly moved 
to seek another occupation. He became a cotton-buyer, but in 
that business met with another difficulty. Most of the planters 
would take nothing in payment for cotton except Southern bank- 
notes. As these notes varied according to the financial condition 
of the banks, dealings in them became necessary in order to 
facihtate the piu-chase of the cotton. Such deahng in notes 
increased in volume, while it became more and more the custom 
to leave the purchasing of cotton to the spinners and their 
agents. Mr. Borg accordingly gave up the latter business and 
devoted his entire attention to dealing in notes. The State of 
Tennessee, however, imposed so heavy a tax upon this busi- 
ness as to discourage him from pursuing it in its simple form, 
and he decided to become a fully fledged banker. 

He accordingly entered into a partnership with Mr. Lazarus 
Levy, and the two opened at Memphis, Tennessee, a banking 
house under the firm-name of Levy & Borg. A little later Mr. 
Jacob Levy was also taken into the firm, and the business was 
successfully conducted for many years. The next change came 
when the State and city began to consider the adoption of legis- 
lation oppressive to private banking enterprises. Messrs. Levy 
& Borg then, in self-protection, applied to the State for a State 
bank charter, and thus established the Manhattan Bank of 
Memphis. Under this name the business went on prosperously 
for a time. Then it was transformed into the Manhattan Sav- 
ings Bank and Trust Company, which is still in profitable exis- 
tence and in which Mr. Borg still has an interest. 

The closing of the old State banking system did away entirely 
with the State bank currency and with the business of dealing 
in it. But at this time the Southern people were in great need 
of fimds, and accordingly began to sell their city and raikoad 
bonds. Mr. Borg's bank engaged largely in the business of pur- 
chasing these securities and placing them upon the market, 
chiefly in New York. It became necessary for some one to 
attend to the business in New York as the bank's representative, 
to sell the securities in the money market of that city, and Mr, 
Borg was chosen for the task. He came to New York in 1865, 
and since that date has spent most of his time here. In 1869 he 



52 SIMON BORG 

established the firm of Levy & Borg in New York, and it re- 
mained until 1881, when it was dissolved by mutual consent, and 
the present banking firm of Simon Borg & Co. took its place. 

Mr. Borg has been much interested in railroads as well as 
banking. For five years, during its construction period, he was 
president of the New York, Susquehanna and Western Railroad. 
Under his direction the road was built fi'om Stroudsburg to 
Wilkesbarre, Pennsylvania, about sixty-five miles, and from 
Little Ferry Jimctiou to Edgewater, on the Hudson, with a 
double-track tunnel a mile long under the Palisades. He was 
also instrumental in constructing various other railroads, and 
in the development of the coal and coke industry at Lookout 
Mountain, and has served on the reorganization committees of 
many of the railroads throughout the United States. 

Mr. Borg has held no political office. Neither has he actively 
entered into club life. He is interested in many benevolent enter- 
prises, however, being president of the Home for Aged and Lifirm 
Hebrews, a trustee of the United Savings Bank, a member of the 
Board of Trade and Transportation, and similarly connected with 
the Mount Sinai Hospital, the Montefiore Home for Chronic 
Invahds, the Hebrew Technical Institute, the Young Men's 
Hebrew Association, the Young Men's Christian Association, the 
Charity Organization Society, the American Museum of Natural 
History, the New York Postgraduate Hospital, the New York 
Juvenile Asylum, the Children's Aid Society, the Dewey Arch 
Committee, and many others. 

He was married, on August 10, 1870, to Miss Cecilia Lichten- 
stadter of New York, who has borne him seven children : Morti- 
mer S., Sidney C, Myron I., Walter B., Beatrice C, Edith D., 
and Elsie H. Borg. He declares that what success he has had in 
life is largely to be attributed to the good influence and wise 
counsel of his wife, and to the happy domestic life which she has 
created for him, and to the fact that he has taken pleasm*e in 
the faithful performance of his daily duties. 



ARCHER BROWN 



A BOUT the time of the Revolutionary War, or a little before 
J\- it, two famDies, named respectively Brown and Phelps, 
came from England, settled in Connecticut, and then migrated 
as pioneers to what is now the central part of New York State. 
Thomas Brown, a member of the one, became a member of the 
New York Legislature from Chenango County. He was blessed 
with no less than sixteen children, of whom the youngest was 
E. Huntington Brown, a farmer of Otsego County. Elisha 
Phelps, a member of the other family named, was a farmer who, 
because of his enthusiasm in Whig politics, left his crops un- 
harvested and took the stump to speak and sing for " Tippecanoe 
and Tyler, too ! " His daughter, Henrietta Phelps, became the 
wife of E. Huntington Brown, but was soon left a widow with a 
six-months-old boy, the subject of this sketch. Some years later 
she married Hiram Adams of FHnt, Michigan, and removed to 
the latter place. 

Archer Brown was born near the village of New Berlin, Otsego 
County, New York, on March 7, 1851. In 1859 he was taken 
by his mother, as above stated, to Fhnt, Michigan, and was pre- 
pared for college in the schools of that place. In 1868 he en- 
tered the University of Michigan, and four years later was 
graduated with the degree of A. B. During his college life he 
showed a strong inclination toward literary and joiu-nahstic 
work, and was one of the editors of the " University Chronicle." 
On leaving the college in 1872, Mr. Brown decided to enter the 
newspaper profession. He accx^rdingly went down to Cincinnati 
and became attached to the staff of the Cincinnati "Gazette," then 
controlled by Richard Smith. He was successively telegraph 
editor, correspondent, reporter, and managing editor, holding the 

53 



54 ARCHER BROWN 

last-named place for five years, ending in 1880. In 1874 lie wrote 
a history of the famous Woman's Temperance Crusade in Ohio, 
from which he reaUzed enough money to pay for a European trip. 
Dui-ing his hfe in the " Gazette " ofl&ce he served as correspondent 
for the New York " Times " and Chicago " Tribune." 

In the fall of 1880 Mr. Brown gave up newspaper work, and 
joined W. A. Rogers in forming the pig-iron firm of Rogers, 
Brown & Co. of Cincinnati. His capital was eight thousand 
dollars, the savings of his years of newspaper work. The firm 
identified itself with the new iron district then being developed 
in Alabama, and prospered. It soon estabhshed a branch in St. 
Louis, then another in Chicago, and later six more in other lead- 
ing cities. In 1890 an enlargement and reorganization of the firm 
took place, Mr. Rogers going to Buffalo, New York, to take 
charge of the Tonawanda Iron and Steel Company as president. 
Five years later Mr. Brown came to New York to dii'ect the 
affairs of the firm in the East. At the present time the firm is 
reputed to handle about one third of the iron marketed in the 
United States. 

Mr. Brown is vice-president of the Tonawanda Iron and Steel 
Company, chau-man of the executive committee of the Em- 
pire State Steel and Iron Company, and a director of the Piano 
Manufacturing Company of Chicago. He has held no political 
ofiice, save that of member of the School Board of Avondale, 
Cincinnati. He is a member of the Commercial Club of Cin- 
cinnati, the Lawyers' Club of New York, the Essex County 
Club, New Jersey, and is president of the Mosaic Club of East 
Orange, New Jersey. He removed his home to East Orange in 
1896. He was married, on June 29, 1880, to Miss Adelaide 
Hitchcock, daughter of the Rev. Dr. Luke Hitchcock, of Hitch- 
cock & Walden, the Methodist Book Concern firm of Cincinnati. 
They have four children : Archer H., Lowell H., Marjorie, and 
Constance. 





CXo_ 




ALONZO NORMAN BURBANK 



IT is not only in new lands and places that great new enter- 
prises are undertaken. Vast is the development and wonder- 
ful is the enterprise of our Western States, beyond all question 
But in the oldest States of the East, even of that New England 
which is now so old, we may find energy and enterprise, and op- 
portunity too, equally great. Many of the pushing, successful 
men of the West have gone thither from the East, or are sons of 
those who did so. But those who remain behind in New England 
and the Middle States are not lacking in the same success-compel- 
ling qualities. We shall find that in these old States some of the 
greatest of the new enterprises have been conceived, organized, 
and developed into full success, and that by those who began life 
in the more quiet and conservative ways of their ancestors. 

There is, for example, no more settled and conservative State 
than the old commonwealth of New Hampshire. Its citizens 
have for generations been pursuing their routine ways of agri- 
culture, manufactures, and shipping. Its name is not identi- 
fied with " hustling " or " booms " ; yet we shaU find some of its 
citizens taking leading parts in some of the greatest new enter- 
prises of the day. 

Peleg N. Burbank, in the last generation, was a steady and 
successful shoe manufacturer at Franklin, New Hampshire. To 
him and his wife, Sarah, was born, at that place, on October 9, 
184:3, a son, to whom the name of Alonzo Noi-man Burbank was 
given. The boy was sent to the common school at Franklin, 
and then to the local high school or academy. These were excel- 
lent institutions, as were most New England schools, though, 
of course, not of collegiate rank. Young Burbank was an apt 
scholar, and learned, with practical thoi-oughness, all there was 



55 



56 ALONZO NORMAN BUEBANK 

to learn in those schools, and a great deal besides from inquiry 
and observation outside of the school-room. His training was 
not, however, of a professional type, and he was apparently des- 
tined to enter some such occupation as his father's. 

His first work, indeed, was in his father's factory, and consisted 
of the simple task of putting strings and laces into shoes. That 
was work he was able to do in his childhood. Later he became 
a clerk in a local store, dealing out dry-goods, groceries, and 
what not, to the rural customer. From the counter of the 
" general store " he went to the railroad, and became a brake- 
man, and then a station agent and telegraph operator. Such 
have been the occupations of thousands of New England youths 
who have never risen to more lucrative or important places. 
There was httle to indicate that this one was to make a " new 
departure." But he presently did so. 

From the railroad he went to a paper-mill, as bookkeeper. 
That was in the old days of paper-making, when the materials 
used were linen, straw, old paper, etc. But the trade was on the 
verge of a mighty revolution, of which New England and New 
York were to be the chief scenes. The experiment of making 
paper from wood was essayed. At first success seemed doubtful. 
But persistence won the day. It was found that paper could be 
made thus, with a promise of far greater cheapness than from 
any other material. The vast spruce and hemlock forests with 
which the New England hills were clothed thus became store- 
houses of raw material, while close at hand, in the unfaiUng 
mountain streams, lay the water-power that would transfer the 
logs into pulp and then into sheets of paper. The first process 
was to reduce the logs to pulp by grinding mechanically. Later, 
the same end was attained by chemical treatment. Thus, within 
the last quarter of a century, the paper trade of the country, and 
indeed of the world, has been completely revolutionized. 

Nor is it merely the paper trade, in itself, that is thus revolu- 
tionized. The publishing trade in all its branches is equally 
affected. The reduction of the price of paper stock to a small 
fraction of what it formerly was, has made possible the reduction 
in price of newspapers, magazines, and books, in a manner not 
dreamed of a generation ago. This has caused an enormous 
increase in the circulation and sale of pubhcations of all kinds, 



ALONZO NOKMAN BUBBANK 57 

and a conunensurately wider diffusion of knowledge and exten- 
sion of those influences which are exerted through the agency 
of the printing-press. In brief, this great cheapening of paper is 
to be ranked second only to the invention of printing itself. 

It has been Mr. Burbank's lot to play a prominent part in this 
work, and last of all to be a member of the gigantic corporation 
which has combined within itself a large proportion of the paper- 
manufacturing business of the North American Continent. To 
this his clerkship in the paper-mill directly led. Without enu- 
merating all the successive steps in his advancement it will suf- 
fice to say that he has been treasurer of the Fall Mountain Paper 
Company, and an officer also of the Winnipiseogee Paper Com- 
pany, the Green Mountain Pulp Company, the Mount Tom Sul- 
phite Company, and the Garvin's FaUs Company. Finally, when 
a short time ago the International Paper Company was organ- 
ized, including within itself more than a score of the leading 
paper, pulp, and sulphite works in the country, and dominat- 
ing the major part of the paper trade of America, Mr. Biu'bank 
became an active and influential member of it. . 

In addition to these interests, Mr. Burbank is a director of the 
International Ti-ust Company of Boston, and of the Mercantile 
Trust Company of the same city. 

Mr. Biu-bank now makes his home in New York, and is here 
a member of the Metropolitan and Colonial clubs. He is also 
a member of the Algonquin, Temple, and Exchange clubs of 
Boston, and of the Westminster Club of Bellows Falls, Ver- 
mont. 

Mr. Burbank was married in 1865, at Andover, New Hamp- 
shire, to Miss Anna M. Gale. They have four children : Etta M., 
Frederick W., Margaret H., and Harriet. 



^iP 




SAMUEL ROGER CALLAWAY 



THE executive head of the New York Central and Hudson 
River Railroad, which forms the backbone of one of the 
greatest railroad systems in the world, is perhaps as typical a 
" raih-oad man" as can anywhere be found. He has been a rail- 
road man all his business life. He started at the bottom of the 
ladder, and step by step, through sheer energy, industry, and 
integrity, has made his way to the top. At middle age he stands 
at the head of and the acknowledged master of one of the 
greatest business enterprises of the nineteenth century. 

Samuel Roger Callaway is of Scotch ancestry and of Canadian 
birth. He was born in the province of Ontario, Canada, on 
December 2-4, 1850, and was educated in the local pubhc schools. 
While yet a mere boy, however, he began railroad work in the 
employ of the Grrand Trunk Raih'oad of Canada. He was only 
thirteen years old when, in 1863, he fiUed a junior clerkship in 
the auditor's office of that corporation. His fli'st salaiy was 
eight dollars and thirty-three cents a month. For eleven years 
he remained in the service of the Grand Trunk, in which time 
he became proficient in many departments of railroad work. 

Mr. Callaway came to the United States in 1874 to act as 
superintendent of the Detroit and Milwaukee Railroad. The 
president of that road was C. C. Trowbridge, and it is interesting 
to recall that he one day gave Mr, Callaway a note of introduc- 
tion to Commodore CorneUus Vanderbilt, in which he said 
that Mr. Callaway was the kind of man for whom the Vander- 
bilts would have use some day. But not at once was Mr. Calla- 
way to realize that prophecy. He went from the Detroit and 
Milwaukee road to the Grand Trunk, and had charge of its hues 
west of the St. Clair River. Next he was president of the 
Chicago and Western Indiana Railroad, and then vice-president 



5S 



SAMUEL ROGER CALLAWAY 59 

and general manager of the Union Pacific. During the con- 
struction period of the Toledo, St. Louis and Kansas City Rail- 
road he was its president, and afterward he was its receiver. 

It was from this latter place that he went into the service of 
the gi'eat Vanderbilt railroad system. He was fii'st called to 
become president of the New York, Chicago and St. Louis or 
"Nickel Plate" Railroad. This was in 1895. John Newell, 
president of the Lake Shore Railroad, had died, D. W. Caldwell, 
president of the " Nickel Plate," had been promoted to succeed 
him, and Mr. Callaway was made Mr. Caldwell's successor. Upon 
Mr. Caldwell's death, Mr. Callaway was chosen to succeed him 
again, as president of the Lake Shore Railroad. Thus he was 
at the same time president of those two roads, and also of the 
Pittsburg and Lake Erie Raih'oad. This was in August, 1897. 

While Mr. Callaway was holding these offices, Chauncey M. 
Depew, president of the New York Central and Hudson River 
Railroad, resigned his place to become chairman of the combined 
boards of directors of all the Vanderbilt roads, and Mr. Calla- 
way was promptly elected to succeed him on March 30, 1898. 
He at the same time, by virtue of the latter election, assumed 
executive control of the Rome, Watertown and Ogdensburg 
Railroad and a number of minor lines. Thus he became the 
immediate head of the gigantic railroad system with which his 
name is now inseparably connected, and the prophecy of Presi- 
dent Trowbridge, made twenty -fom* years previously, was strik- 
ingly fulfilled. 

Mr. Callaway's capacity for work is prodigious. He is syste- 
matic, careful, reticent, yet straightforward and frank in all 
that he has to say. He is prompt and decisive, and a strict dis- 
ciphnarian, yet popular with his suboi'dinates, for the reason 
that, like all real leaders of men, he subjects himself to the same 
discipline that he imposes upon them. He is genial, and makes 
and holds many friends. 

His social side is as charming and attractive as his business 
side is masterful and successful. Mrs. Callaway has borne to 
him a daughter and two sons. The family had just settled in a 
fine home in Cleveland, Ohio, when Mr. Callaway was called to 
New York. Their home is now in the latter city, and it is a 
well-known center of delightful hospitahty. 




JUAN MANUEL CEBALLOS 



ALTHOUGH the Spaniards planted no colonies on the North 
Jl\. American continent north of the Floridas, there is a con- 
siderable sprinkling of their race in the northern parts of the 
United States, and especially in the city of New York. Some of 
these Spanish residents and citizens are of comparatively recent 
immigration to these shores, whUe others, of the purest blood, 
have been settled here for several generations. Among them are 
not a few who occupy the foremost rank in business affairs and 
in social life. 

Conspicuous among these is Juan Manuel Ceballos, who, while 
a native of New York city, may be taken as a representative 
Spaniard. Indeed, he is peculiarly representative of all Spain, 
for his father, Juan M. Ceballos, long estabhshed in New York 
as a merchant, came from Santander, in the north of Spain, while 
his mother, whose maiden name was Juana Sanchez de Herrera, 
came from Malaga, in the southern j^art of the peninsula. 

Of this parentage Mr. Ceballos was bom in New York on 
September 19, 1859. He was educated at the then famous 
Charlier Institute, up to the age of fifteen years. Being an apt 
scholar, and matming early, as is the rule with the Southern 
Latin races, he then left school and entered his father's office to 
begin the career of a merchant. There he showed an aptitude 
similar to that displayed at school, and consequently soon mas- 
tered the details of the business and won promotion. Before he 
was twenty-one years old he was invested with full power of 
attorney, and was admitted into the fiim as a partner. 

Mr. Ceballos continued to be his father's partner until the 
death of the latter, which occurred in 1886. Thereupon Mr. 
Ceballos, who was then only twenty-seven years old, became the 

60 





4^~pCyC^^ 



JUAN MANUEL CEBALL08 61 

head of the business and assumed entire charge thereof. Shortly 
afterward he founded the India Wharf Brewing Company, and 
the New York and Porto Rico Steamship Company, and began 
the development of important industiial and commercial interests 
in Cuba. 

At the present time Mr. Ceballos is president of the India 
Wharf Brewing Company, of the New York and Porto Rico 
Steamship Company, and of several sugar-plantation and other 
foreign corporations. He is also a director of the Western 
National Bank of New York. He is largely interested in the 
rehabilitation and development of Cuba, and is identified with 
the troLley-car systems of Havana and other important enter- 
prises. 

Mr. Ceballos is, of course, an American citizen of most loyal 
spirit, though he natm'ally has a strong affection for the race and 
country of his ancestors. When the Infanta Eulalia of Spain 
visited this country in 1893, in connection with the quadricen- 
tenary of Columbus, he entertained her and her suite as his 
guests. Upon the outbreak of the war between the United 
States and Spain in 1898 he was placed in a trying position, in 
which he acquitted himself with faultless tact. He promptly 
resigned the office of Spanish vice-consul, which he had held 
for some time, in order that there might not be any possibility 
of misinterpreting his position as an American citizen. Later, 
when the war ceased and the treaty of peace was signed, he 
entered into negotiations for the return of the Spanish prisoners 
to Spain from Santiago de Cuba, and earned out the undertaking 
to the entire satisfaction of both governments. Still later he 
similarly managed the transportation of the Spanish prisoners 
from the Philippine Islands to Spain. Mr. Ceballos has held no 
political office, and has taken no part in politics beyond that of 
a private citizen. 

He is a member of a number of clubs and other organizations, 
among which are the Union, New York, Democratic, New York 
Athletic, and Fifth Avenue Riding clubs. 

He was mari'ied, on May 10, 1886, to Miss Lulu Washington, 
who has borne him two children : Juan M. Ceballos, Jr., and 
Louisa Adams Ceballos. 



WILLIAM ASTOR CHANLER 



AMONG- the scions of distinguislied New York families, no 
J-A_ one has achieved at an early age a more honorable position 
than William Astor Chanler. At an age when most young men 
are concerned principally with the proper fit of their coats or 
the pattern of theu' neckties, he was at the head of an exploring 
expedition in the heart of Africa, and in his later career as a 
member of the State Legislature, a patriot, and a soldier, he has 
proved himself a worthy descendant of sturdy ancestors. 

For the present purpose it will be sufficient to trace back Mr. 
Chanler's paternal ancestry three generations. Dr. Isaac Chanler 
was one of the foremost physicians in this country in colonial 
times. He served with conspicuous merit as a surgeon in the 
American ai*my in the Revolutionary War, and was the first 
president of the Medical Society of South Carolina, his home 
being at Charleston in that State. His son, the Rev. John White 
Chanler, wiU be remembered as a prominent and honored clergy- 
man of the Protestant Episcopal Chui'ch. A son of the Rev. Mr. 
Chanler was the Hon. John Winthi'op Chanler of this city. He 
was born in 1826, was graduated from Columbia College, and be- 
came one of the leading lawyers of his day. He was also a 
pohtical leader, being a member of Tammany Hall, and for three 
terms a Representative in Congress from a New York city 
district. 

On the maternal side Mr. Chanler is a member of the Astor 
family, being directly descended fi'om the first John Jacob Astor, 
founder of that family in America. The latter's son, William 
Backhouse Astor, married Miss Margaret Armstrong, the daugh- 
ter of the younger of the two General Armstrongs famed in the 
earlier history of this nation. General Armstrong became a Rep- 

62 




li/ ) Uay^ C^A^L^--l^ 




> 



WILLIAM ASTOB CHANLER 63 

resentative in Congress from New York in 1787 ; a Senator of 
the United States from New York in 1800; United States min- 
ister to France and Spain in 1801—10 ; a brigadier-general in the 
United States army in 1812 ; and Secretary of War in President 
Madison's cabinet in 1813. One of the children of Wilham B. 
Astor and Margaret Armstrong Astor was Miss Emily Astor, 
who became the wife of the Hon. John Winthrop Chanler, named 
above. 

The offspring of the marriage of John Winthrop Chanler and 
Emily Astor included the subject of the present sketch. William 
Astor Chanler was born in this city in 1866, and was educated 
with more than ordinary care, at first by private tutors, then at 
St. John's School, Sing Sing, New York, then at Philhps 
Academy, Exeter, New Hampshire, and finally at Harvard Uni- 
versity. In the last-named institution he pursued a brilliant 
career, and was graduated with the degree of A. B. in 1887. 
Later he received the advanced degree of A. M. from his Alma 
Mater. 

On leaving college he hterally had the world before him. In 
perfect physical health, of admirable intellectual attainments, 
with ample wealth, and of unsurpassed social standing and con- 
nections, he had only to choose whatever career he pleased. To 
the surprise of most of his friends he deliberately turned his 
back upon the fascinations and luxuries of society, and set out to 
be for a time a wanderer in the most savage and inhospitable 
regions of the known — or rather the unknown — world. It was 
while he was spending a winter in Florida that he conceived the 
desire — and with him desire and determination were sjiiony- 
mous — to explore the Dark Continent of Africa. Forthwith he 
organized an experimental trip, a mere hunting excursion. He 
went to the savage east coast, and landed in Masailand, perhaps 
the most perilous region in aU Afi'ica. There he boldly struck 
inland, and spent ten months in the jungle, penetrating to the 
scarcely known region around Mount Kenia and Moimt Kiliman- 
jaro. His experiences there convinced him of his abihty to stand 
the fatigues and labors of such adventures, and also confirmed 
him in his taste for Afi-ican exploration. 

He accordingly resolved to make another venture on a more 
elaborate scale, and one which should be productive not only of 



64 WILLIAM ASTOB CHANLER 

sport for himself, but of real benefit to the scientific, and possibly 
the commercial, world. Accordingly, he made his plans with 
much care and at great expense, bearing all the latter himself. 
He had only two white companions, one of them being the Chev- 
aher Ludwig von Hohnel, a Ueutenaut in the Austrian navy, 
who had also had some practical experience in African explora- 
tion. An ample caravan was organized,, and on September 17, 
1892, the start was made inland fi-om the Zanzibar coast. The 
first objective point was Mount Kenia, from the slopes of which 
the sources of the great Victoria Nyanza were supposed to pro- 
ceed. That mountain was at that time all but unknown, and 
the wilderness lying at the north of it was still less known, save 
the fact concerning it that it was infested by some particularly 
savage tribes. The expedition also proposed to explore the 
shores of the great Lake Rudolph. 

Lieutenant Hohnel wished to explore the river Nianan, which 
flows into the lake from an unknown source, and, if possible, 
verify the conjectured existence of another river running into 
the lake from the northwest. Afterward it was expected to 
march east-northeast and visit Lake Stephanie and the Juba 
River, thus covering some five hundred miles of the least-known 
portion of the earth's surface. 

For many months nothing was heard from the party, and much 
anxiety was felt for their safety. At length a rumor reached 
civiUzation that the caravan was stranded at Daitcho, a few 
miles north of the equator and not far northeast of Mount Kenia. 
The nimor was subsequently corroborated by information re- 
ceived by the Geogi'aphical Society in London. The report 
stated that the climate was particularly fatal to the camels and 
other animals in the caravan. In one day they lost one hundred 
and fifty donkeys and fifteen camels. In February of the follow- 
ing year, Mr. Chanler, after being deserted by many of his native 
followers, and suffering great hardships, succeeded in reaching 
the coast. The caravan, when it started in September, 1892, 
consisted of one hundi'ed and fifty porters, twenty interpreters, 
cooks, and tent-boys, twelve Sudanese soldiers, seven camel- 
drivers, and a large number of camels, donkeys, oxen, sheep, 
goats, ponies, and dogs. On October 1 there were left of living 
things in the expedition one hundred and twelve black men, 



WILLIAM ASTOK CHANLEE 65 

twelve donkeys, Mr. Chanler, Lieutenant von Hohnel, who had 
been wounded by a rhinoceros and returned to the coast, and 
Mr. Chanler's servant, Galvin. Notwithstanding the terrible 
chmate and the hardships of the journey, Mr. Cbanler's health 
was not impau-ed. His expedition was exceedingly fruitf id of re- 
sults, and many important additions were made to the geographi- 
cal knowledge of Africa. He discovered and mapped a hitherto 
luiknown region equal in area to that of Portugal. He wrote 
an extremely entertaining account of bis experience, entitled 
"Through Jungle and Desert." 

Mr. Chanler resumed his residence in New York, and in 1895 
entered pohtical life. Somewhat to the dismay of his family, 
and to the surprise of all his associates, he joined Tammany 
Hall, and under that banner was elected to the Assembly from 
the Fifth District. 

In 1898 he made a gallant and successful fight to win congres- 
sional honors in the Fourteenth District, although the opposing 
candidate, the Hon. Lemuel Ely Quigg, was very strong in the 
district and had earned it the year before by ten thousand. The 
district runs from Fifty-second Street to Spuyten Duyvil, 
bounded on the east by Central Park and Seventh Avenue, and 
the other section runs from Fifty-ninth Street to Seventy-ninth 
Street on the East Side, the East River being the eastern boun- 
dary, the park the western. The district has a population of 
three hundi-ed thousand people, and a voting strength of sixty 
thousand. Rich and poor are to be found among the voters, and 
Captain Chanler, despite his wealth, won the good will of the 
laboring man as well as that of the capitalist. 

When the war with Spain broke out Mr. Chanler was one of 
the young men of wealth and social standing who disappointed 
the pessimists by being among the first to offer their services to 
their country. Mr. Chanler's patriotism went even further. As 
soon as it was apparent that the government would make a call 
for troops, he set about recruiting a regiment of volunteers, 
which he intended to arm and equip at his own cost. He was 
deeply disappointed when Governor Black intimated that he 
could not accept the regiment that was being formed by Mr. 
Chanler. Thereupon he left the city with a few companions, 
and proceeded to Tampa, with the intention of joining the staff 



66 WILLIAM ASTOK CHANLEB 

of Lacret, the Cuban general. Before he could reach Cuba, 
however, he was commissioned by the President as an assistant 
adjutant-general, with the rank of captain, and assigned to 
General Wheeler's staff. He served throughout the Santiago cam- 
paign, and was several times under fire, and was mentioned for 
conspicuous gallantry in action in General Wheeler's despatches 
to the War Department. On October 3 he was honorably dis- 
charged by dii'ection of the President, his services being no 
longer requii'ed. At an extra session of the Assembly in July, 
1898, the following resolution was unanimously earned by a 
rising vote : 

" Whebeas, The Honorable Wilham Astor Chanler, one of the 
members of this body, has gone to the front with a large num- 
ber of other patriots from this State, and is now at Santiago de 
Cuba fighting the country's cause upon the field of battle ; there- 
fore be it 

" Resolved, That the Assembly of the State of New York, in ex- 
traordinary session assembled, sends cordial message of greeting 
to Captain Chanler, and wishes him and all of New York's gallant, 
brave soldiers a safe return fi*om the field of battle ; and be it 
further 

" Resolved, That Mr. Chanler be, and he is, gi*anted indefinite 
leave of absence from the House ; and that a copy of this pream- 
ble and resolution be spread upon the Journal." 

Mr. Chanler is a member of the Knickerbocker, Union, Play- 
ers', Turf, and Field clubs, and of the American Geogi-aphical 
Society. He is unmanned. One of his sisters. Miss Margaret 
Chanler, is a member of the Red Cross Society, 

Mr. Chanler, as already stated, is a Democrat in politics, as 
was his father before him. He has expressed himself as favor- 
ing a generous national policy, including the enlargement of the 
army and navy to a size proportionate to the nation's needs, the 
construction of an interoceanic canal across the Central Amer- 
ican isthmus, the establishment of suitable naval stations in the 
Pacific and elsewhere, the annexation of Hawaii, the control of 
the Philippines, and perhaps the ultimate annexation of Cuba, 
whenever the people of that island shall desire it. 




m 



J^^^ ^CAl^L 



t5/' "i 



'd 



HUGH JOSEPH CHISHOLM 



8~ COTCH by ancestry, Canadian by birth, true American by 
choice, is the record of Hugh Joseph Chisholm, the head of 
the International Paper Company. He was born on May 2, 
1847, on the Canadian side of the Niagara Eiver, and was edu- 
cated in local schools and afterward in a business college at 
Toronto. Then, at the age of sixteen years, he entered prac- 
tical business hfe. His first engagement was in the railway 
news and pubhshing line, his business covering four thousand 
miles of road and employing two hundred and fifty hands. But 
by the time he had reached his first quarter-century he began 
to turn his attention to the great enterprises with which he is 
now identified. 

About the year 1882 Mr. Chisholm observed the splendid 
natin-al advantages offered by the upper reaches of the Andros- 
coggin River, in Maine, for manufacturing pm-poses, in the foi-m 
of an inexhaustible supply of pure water and practically un- 
limited water-power. For years he planned and schemed to 
secure there a suitable tract of land for the establishment of an 
industrial town. He was then in business at Portland, and 
made many a trip up the Androscoggin, not merely for hunting 
and fishing, but with great industrial enterprises in his mind's 
eye. In the late eighties he got control of the land he wanted, 
and also of the then moribund Eumford Falls and Buckfield 
Raih-oad. The latter he promptly developed into the Portland 
and Rumford FaUs Railway, which was opened to traffic in 
August, 1892. 

In the meantime, with his associates, he improved his eleven- 
hundred-acre tract of land on the Androscoggin and built the 
industrial town of Rumford Falls. When he organized the 



67 



68 HUGH JOSEPH CHISHOLM 

Rumford Falls Power Company, in 1890, with five hundred 
thousand dollars capital, there were two or three cabins at the 
place. When the new railway was opened in 1892 there was a 
town of more than three thousand population, ^ith great mills, 
stores, schools, churches, newspapers, fire department, electric 
lights, and " all modern improvements." The chief industry of 
the place is the manufacture of wood-pulp and paper. The 
Androscoggin furnishes an unsurpassed water-power and water- 
supply, while the suiTOunding forests provide the wood. The 
works at Rumford Falls include everything necessary for the 
transformation of logs of wood into sheets of paper. There are 
mills for cutting up the trees, chemical works for making the 
chemicals used in reducing wood to pulp, and paper-mills for 
tm-ning out many tons of finished paper each day. The place is 
an unsurpassed exhibition of the achievements of American 
ingenuity and enterprise, and a splendid monument to the genius 
of the man who called it into being. 

Mr. Chisholm is the president and controlling owner of the 
Portland and Rumford Falls Railway, and treasm-er, manager, 
and controlling owner of the Rumford Falls Power Company. 
But his interests do not end there. He was, before the creation 
of Rumford Falls, the chief owner of the Umbagog Pulp Com- 
pany, the Otis Falls Pvilp Company, and the Falmouth Paper 
Company. He is also a director of the Casco National Bank 
of Portland, Maine. Nor did his enterprise stop with these 
things. Observing the tendency of the age toward great com- 
binations of business interests, by which cost of production is 
lessened, injmious competition obviated, and profits increased to 
the producer and cost reduced to the consumer at the same time, 
he planned and with his associates finally executed such a com- 
bination in the paper trade. 

The result was the formation of the International Paper Com- 
pany of New York, which was legally organized in January, 
1898, with twenty-five million dollars cumulative six per cent, 
preferred stock and twenty million dollars common stock. This 
giant corporation has acquired by purchase the manufacturing 
plants, water-powers, and woodlands of thirty paper-making 
concerns, which produce the great bulk of the white paper for 
newspapers in North America, and are as follows : Glens Falls 



HUGH JOSEPH CHISHOLM 69 

Paper Mills Co., Glens Falls, N. Y. ; Hudson River Pulp and 
Paper Co., Palmer's Falls, N. Y. ; Herkimer Paper Co., Herkimer, 
N. Y. ; Piercefield Paper Co., Piercefield, N. Y. ; Fall Mountain 
Paper Co., Bellows Falls, Vt. ; Glen Manufacturing Co., Berlin, 
N. H.; Falmouth Paper Co., Jay, Me. ; Rumford Falls Paper 
Co., Rumford Falls, Me. ; Montague Paper Co., Turner's Falls, 
Mass. ; St. Maurice Linuber Co., Three Rivers, Quebec, Canada. ; 
Webster Paper Co., Orono, Me. ; Plattsburg Paper Co., Cadyville, 
N. Y. ; Niagara Falls Paper Co., Niagara Falls, N. Y. ; Ontario 
Paper Co., Watertown, N. Y. ; Lake George Paper Co., Ticon- 
deroga, N. Y. ; Winnipiseogee Paper Co., Franklin Falls, N. H. ; 
Otis Falls Paper Co., Chisholm, Me. ; Umbagog Pulp Co., Liver- 
more Falls, Me. ; Russell Paper Co., Lawrence, Mass. ; Haverhill 
Paper Co., Haverhill, Mass. ; Turner's Falls Paper Co., Turner's 
Falls, Mass. ; C. R. Remington & Sons Paper Co., Watertown, 
N. Y. ; Remington Paper Co., Watertown, N. Y. ; Ashland Mills, 
Ashland, N. H. ; Rumford Falls Sulphite Co., Riimford Falls, 
Me. ; Piscataquis Paper and Pulp Co., Montague, Me. ; Moose- 
head Pulp and Paper Co., Solon, Me. ; Lyons Falls Mills, Lyons 
Falls, N. Y. ; Milton MiUs, Milton, Vt. ; Wilder Mills, Olcott 
Falls, Vt. 

These various mills produce about seventeen hundred tons of 
finished paper a day. The company holds the title to more than 
seven hundred thousand acres of spruce woodland in the United 
States and license to cut on twenty-one hundi'ed square miles in 
Quebec, Canada. 

Mr. Chisholm is the president of this corporation. Though he 
has held no public office, he has taken a keen interest in public 
affairs, and is an earnest member of the Repubhcan party and 
upholder of its principles. He was married at Portland, Maine, 
in 1872, to Miss Henrietta Mason, daughter of Dr. Mason of 
that city, and has one sou, Hugh Chisholm. 



WILLIAM BOURKE COCKRAN 



THE legend of the Blarney stone may be a legend and nothing 
more ; but beyond question the Irish race is gifted in a high 
degree with persuasive eloquence of speech. Some of the most 
famous orators of the British Parliament have hailed from the 
Emerald Isle, and in the short-lived Irish Parliament on College 
Green there were not a few orators of exceptional power. Irish- 
men in America, too, have been heard from the pubUc platform 
to signal purpose. And thus it is entirely fitting that one of the 
most popular and effective pohtical orators of the day in New 
York should be a man of Irish birth. 

WiUiam Bourke Cockran was born in Ireland on February 28, 
1854. He was educated partly in Ireland and partly in France, 
and at the age of seventeen, in 1871, came to the United States, 
landing at New York. 

His first occupation in this country was as a teacher in a pri- 
vate academy. Later he was the principal of a pubhc school in 
Westchester County, near New York city. Meantime he dili- 
gently improved his knowledge of law, and in due time was ad- 
mitted to practice at the bar. In that profession he has attained 
marked success, ranking among the leaders of the bar of New 
York. Among the noted cases in which he has been engaged 
may be recalled that of the Jacob Sharp " Boodle Aldermen," 
and that of Kemmler, the murderer who was the first to be put 
to death by electric shock in the State of New York. 

Early in his career Mr. Cockran became interested in politics 
in New York city. He was a Democrat, and was a prominent 
member and leader of Tammany Hall. His power as a speaker 
made him a force in public meetings and at conventions. He 
first became prominent in politics in 1881, and in 1890 he was 

70 




'm- 



WILLIAM BOURKE COCKRAN 71 

elected to Congress from a New York city district as a Tammany 
Democrat. He had made a notable speech in the National 
Democratic Convention in 1884, opposing the nomination of 
Grover Cleveland for the Presidency, and had thereby won a 
national reputation which fixed much attention upon his appear- 
ance at Washington. In Congress he had a successful career, 
but found the place not altogether to his liking. He served for 
six years, but in 1894 declined a further reelection, in order to 
attend to his private interests. At the National Democratic Con- 
vention of 1892 he again oj^posed the nomination of Mr. Cleveland 
in a speech of gi'eat power. 

Mr. Cockran practically withdrew from Tammany Hall in 
1894, and thereafter for a time was an independent Democrat. 
In the Presidential campaign of 1896 Mr. Cockran, with thou- 
sands of other Democrats, as a matter of principle, openly repu- 
diated Mr. Bryan's free-silver platform and supported the Repub- 
lican candidate for President, Mr. McKinley. Mr. Cockran was 
a frequent and most effective speaker in that campaign, and con- 
tributed much by his persuasive and convincing eloquence to the 
phenomenal size of the majority by which Mi*. McKinley carried 
the State of New York. 

Mr. Cockran was married, in 1885, to Miss Rhoda E. Mack, the 
daughter of John Mack. She had a fine fortune in her own 
right, and became a social leader at the national capital when 
Mr. Cockran was in Congress. In 1893 her health began to fail, 
and various visits to places of sanatory repute failed to check 
the progress of the malady. She died in New York on February 
20, 1895. 




WILLIAM NATHAN COHEN 



" XT7AIT till you come to forty year " was the genial satirist's 
▼ T injunction to thoughtless youth. The mentioned age 
is one at which a man should still be young, though fixed in 
character and in estate. Beyond it lie many possible achieve- 
ments, and what is gained at forty is not necessarily to be taken 
as the full measure of a man's doings. In the present case we 
shall observe the career of one who began work at an early age and 
in the humblest fashion, who, by dint of hard work, privations, 
and inflexible determination, made his way steadily upward, and 
who, at exactly " forty year," attained official rank which placed 
him at the head of his chosen profession. 

William Nathan Cohen, sou of Nathan and Ernestine Cohen, 
was born in this city on May 7, 1857. His father was a German, 
whose ancestors had come from Bavaria, and he followed the 
business of a diy-goods merchant. William was first sent to the 
public schools of the city, and then became a clerk in the office of 
Morrison, Lauterbach & Spingam. He began this work at the 
age of thirteen years, and remained in the same office until he 
was seventeen. Then he determined to acquire a higher educa- 
tion which would fit him for a learned profession. In four 
months of private study he fitted himself for the highest class 
in Ejmball Union Academy, Meriden, New Hampshire, and 
after a year in that institution he entered Dartmouth College, 
selecting it because it seemed most accessible to a youth of his 
limited means. During his whole college course he worked his 
way, in the summer as a law- office clerk and in the winter as a 
school-teacher. He was graduated in the class of 1879, taking 
the prize for the greatest improvement made in four years. It 
should be added that one of his employers, Siegmund Spingam, 
generously assisted him in his early struggles. 

72 



WILLIAM NATHAN COHEN 73 

On leavingc Dartmouth he came to New York and entered the 
Cohimbia College Law School, at the same time mamtaming his 
service as clerk in the office of Morrison, Lauterbach & Spin- 
garn. Two years later, in 1881, he was graduated and admitted 
to the bar, and on the death of Mr. Spingarn, in 1883, he was 
made a member of the firm in which he had so long been em- 
ployed. He remained in the firm, under its new style of Hoadly, 
Lauterbach & Johnson, until he was appointed a justice of the 
Supreme Court. This appointment was made by Governor 
Black in September, 1897, to fill the vacancy caused by the 
death of Justice Sedgwick. 

While at the bar Mr. Cohen had a distinguished careei\ Be- 
sides a large general practice, he was counsel for a number of 
business corporations and benevolent institutions, among them 
being the Brooklyn Elevated Railroad Company, the Thu-d 
Avenue Railroad Company, the Edison Electric Illuminating 
Company, the Consohdated Telegraph and Electrical Subway 
Company, the Hebrew Benevolent Orphan Society, and the 
Mount Sinai Training School for Nurses. 

Justice Cohen was nominated for his place on the bench in 
1898, at the earnest recommendation of the Bar Association and 
the bar generally, without regard to pohtics. He was, however, 
opposed by the Tammany organization because of his indepen- 
dence of pohtical considerations, and was defeated in the election, 
to the general regret of the bench and bar. 

He is a member of the Bar Association, the State Bar Associ- 
ation, the American Bar Association, the Lotos Club, the Alpha 
Delta Phi Club, the University Athletic Club, the Harmonie, 
Republican, and Lawyers' clubs, the Aiion Society, the Society 
of Medical Jurisprudence, the Society of Fine Arts, the Dart- 
mouth College Alumni, and the Phi Beta Kappa Fraternity. He 
is unmarried. 

Mr. Cohen takes high rank as a lawyer, owing to his training, 
reading, and accurate insight into legal problems, and his career 
on the bench showed him the possessor of a judicial mind, a 
master of good English, and the possessor of that inflexible in- 
tegrity and impartiahty that should distinguish the acceptable 
administrator of justice. 




BIRD SIM COLER 



ABOUT a century ago a family named Coler came to this 
-Z^ country from the quaint old German city of Nuremberg, 
and soon became thoroughly identified with the young re- 
pubhc. Half a century ago its head, William N. Coler, was a 
leading lawyer and Democratic politician of IlUnois. He was for 
a time a member of the Democratic State Committee. After that 
he went to Chicago and became a banker, and became interested 
in lands and railroads in the Southwest. Finally, he came to 
New York city, making his home in Brooklyn, and engaged here 
in the business of a banker and broker. He married Cordelia 
Sim, a lady of Scotch descent, related to General Hugh Mercer 
of Revolutionary fame. 

Bird Sim Coler, son of the foregoing, was born at Champaign, 
Champaign County, Illinois, on October 9, 1868. Two years 
later the family removed to Brooklyn, and there, in time, the boy 
was educated at the Polytechnic Institute, afterward taking a 
course at Philhps Andover Academy. On leaving school, he 
entered his father's banking house in New York city, and was 
initiated into the ways of Wall Street. He was at first a mere 
clerk and secretary in his father's office, but in 1889 had so far 
mastered the business as to be deemed worthy of a partnership. 
He also became a member of the New York Stock Exchange, 
not for speculative purposes, but in order to conduct a brokerage 
business for customers. The house was a large dealer in munici- 
pal bonds, and to these Mr. Coler paid particular attention. He 
traveled extensively in the West and Northwest, examining the 
financial condition of the cities whose securities he dealt in, and 
thus became an expert authority on municipal finance, a circum- 




^. 



/I 



BIBD SIM COLER 75 

stance which was destined to have an important bearing upon 
his after career. 

From an early date Mr. Coler took a keen interest in politics, 
as a Democrat, He became a member of his ward association in 
Brooklyn, and then of the County Committee. For several years 
he was chah'man of the Finance Committee of the County Com- 
mittee. He enjoyed the confidence of the party leaders, and 
was regarded as one of the rising men of the party. In 1893 he 
was nominated for the ofB.ce of alderman at large, but that was 
a Republican year in Brooklyn, and he was defeated. He ran 
far ahead of his ticket, however. In 1897 his chance came 
again. The consolidation of the cities of Brooklyn and New 
York was about to go into effect, and officers were to be elected 
for the whole metropolis. Mr. Coler was nominated by the 
Democrats for the office of Controller, the chief financial post 
in the municipal government, and, after a hot campaign, he 
was elected. The term being foui" years, he is still in that office. 

In addition to the Stock Exchange, Mr. Coler is a member of 
the Democratic, Brooklyn, and Groher clubs. As his member- 
ship in the last-named club indicates, he is a book-lover, and has 
collected in his Brooklyn home a large and valuable library. He 
has traveled much, including several trips around the world. 
He is a lover of fishing, hunting, and similar sports. He is a 
member of one of the leading Methodist Episcopal churches of 
Brooklyn, and is active in all its work. 

Mr. Coler was married, on October 10, 1888, to Miss Emily 
Moore, daughter of Benjamin Moore of Brooklyn, and they have 
one son, Eugene Coler. 




FRANK W. COLER 



THE Coler family, which was planted in this country more 
than a himdred years ago, is of German origin. The 
ancient history of Niu-emberg reveals the fact that some of its 
members were wardens or custodians of the great forests of 
that part of the empire in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. 
Their services to the crown were such as well entitled them to 
nobiliaiy distinction, but thi'ough their own persistent choice 
they remained commoners. 

In the Reformation period the family became pretty widely 
dispersed throughout Europe, in various lands and nations, and 
members of it rose to distinction under more than one govern- 
ment. In late years one member of it has been made a baron 
for services rendered by him as Medical Director of the German 
army. 

The first of the family in America settled in Philadelphia, 
Pennsylvania, soon after the close of the War of the Revolution. 
He had brought his wife and two sons with him from Germany. 
Two more sons were born to him in Philadelphia, and fi-om one 
of them, Isaac Coler, the subject of this sketch is descended. 
Isaac Coler, after his father's death, went West and became a 
farmer in Knox County, Ohio. 

His son, William Nichols Coler, was born and brought up on 
the Knox County farm. He served all through the Mexican 
War as a private in an Ohio regiment. Then he came home 
and studied law. He was admitted to the bar at Bloomington, 
Illinois, in 1849, and opened an office at Urbana, Champaign 
County, Ilhnois, where he soon became a leading practitioner. 
He was also interested in pohtical affairs, and was a personal 
fnend of Abraham Lincoln. At the outbreak of the Civil War 

76 




mm: 



i 




4 . "U/^. vi,^r-£j^»^ 



FRANK W. COLER 77 

Mr. Coler organized the Twenty-fifth Ilhnois infantry regiment, 
and went to the front as its colonel. After the battle of Pea 
Eidge he resigned his commission and returned to Urbana and 
resumed his law practice. He made a specialty of laws relating 
to municipal bonds and finance, and became an authority upon 
that branch of practice. 

That fact finally led him, in 1870, to come to New York city 
and found the house of W. N. Coler & Co., bankers and brokers, 
which has since enjoyed a highly prosperous career. 

Colonel Coler married Miss Simm of Urbana, Illinois, a de- 
scendant of General Mercer, of Revolutionary fame, who bore 
him several sons. One of these is the subject of the present 
sketch. 

Frank W. Coler was born at Urbana, Illinois, on August 22, 
1871. He was brought to New York city in his infancy, and 
was educated at first in its schools. Then he studied succes- 
sively at Cornell University, at the University of Halle, Germany, 
at the School of Economics and Pohtical Sciences, Paris, 
France, and at the Law Department of the Northwestern Uni- 
versity, Evanston, Ilhnois. 

With such preparation he entered upon the practice of the law 
in the city of Chicago. He was a partner there of Judge Adams 
A. Goodi-ich and of Judge William A. Vincent. After three years 
of successfid practice, however, he withdrew from it and left 
Chicago for the metropolis. 

In New York Mr. Coler entered the banking house of W. N. 
Coler & Co., which had been founded by his father, and of 
which his father was head and his two brothers partners. In 
1895 he became a partner in it, and still maintains that connec- 
tion. His father having retired fi'om active business, Mr. Coler's 
elder brother, W. N. Coler, Jr., became, in 1898, the head of the 
firm. The third brother. Bird S. Coler, was in 1897 elected 
Controller of the city of New York. 

IVIr. Coler was mai-ried, on July 7, 1894, to Miss Cecile Ander- 
son. They have one child, Kenneth Anderson Coler. 



WILLIAM NICHOLS COLER, JR. 



THE remote ancestors of the subject of this sketch were 
men of parts and substance m central and southern Ger- 
many. The archives of Nuremberg tell that, in the fourteenth 
and fifteenth centuries, members of the family were wardens or 
custodians of the great forests which form so important a part 
of that region. Their sei*vices entitled them to elevation to 
noble rank, but, through theu' own choice, they steadfastly re- 
mained commoners. In later years the family became more 
widely dispersed throughout Europe, in various nations. In 
comparatively recent years one of its members was prevailed upon 
to accept the rank of a baron, in recognition of his services as 
Medical Director of the Germany army. 

The family was first settled in America soon after the War of 
the Revolution. The pioneer member of it settled in Phila- 
delphia, Pennsylvania, and there two sons were bom to him. 
One of these, Isaac Coler, removed to Knox County, Ohio, and 
became a farmer. There a son was born to him, to whom he 
gave the name of William Nichols Coler. The latter has had 
an interesting career as a private in the Mexican War, a law 
student and a practising lawyer at Bloomington, lUinois, a lead- 
ing lawyer and friend of Abraham Lincoln in Urbana, Illinois, 
a colonel in the Civil War, and the founder and head of a bank- 
ing house in New York city. He married a Miss Simm, who 
was maternally descended from General Mercer of Revolutionary 
fame, and she bore him several sons. The oldest of these re- 
ceived his father's name. 

William Nichols Coler, Jr., was bom at Urbana, Illinois, on 
July 6, 1858. His education was received in the pubUc schools 
of that place and in Illinois University. While he was yet in 

78 



WILLIAM NICHOLS COLEB, JK. 79 

his boyhood his father left Urbana to become a banker in New 
York city, with a home in Brooklyn, and yoimg Mr. Coler, of 
course, came with him to the metropolis. 

His inclinations were toward the business in which his father 
was so successfully engaged, and he, therefore, entered his 
father's counting-house, at fii-st as an employee to learn the 
business, but soon as a partner. With that house, W. N. Coler 
& Co., bankers and brokers, he has been continuously connected 
ever since. His father retired from the head of the firm on 
November 1, 1898, and Mr. Coler, Jr., succeeded him in that 
place. 

Mr. Coler has been eminently successful in his business life, 
and has won the esteem and confidence of his acquaintance and 
of the public in an enviable degree. He has become officially 
connected with numerous other corporations, chiefly banks and 
trust companies. Many of these are out-of-town banks and 
other institutions. Among those in the metropohs may be 
mentioned the Western National Bank of New York, the Amer- 
ican Deposit and Loan Company of New l^ork, the Brooklyn 
Bank of Brooklyn, and the Fidelity Trust Company of Newark, 
New Jersey, which, by reason of its proximity to New Y^'ork, may 
practically be reckoned a metropolitan institution. Of all these 
Mr. Coler is a director. 

Mr. Coler has held no political office, and taken no especially 
active part in political affairs, although his younger brother, 
Bird S. Coler, was, in the fall of 1897, elected Controller of the 
city of New York for a term of four years. 

Mr. Coler is a member of the Hamilton Club of Brooklyn, the 
Lawyers', Calumet, and Knickerbocker clubs of New York, and 
the Essex Club of Newark, New Jersey. 

He was married, on February 8, 1888, to Miss Lillie E. Seeley, 
and has two sons : William Nichols Coler III, born in August, 
1889, and Eugene Seeley Coler, born in January, 1896. 



gXD 




WASHINGTON EA^RETT CONNOR 



THE " old Ninth Ward " of this city was the birthplace of 
Washington Everett Connor — the old village of Green- 
wich, where his father and gi-andfather had hved, and indeed 
been bom, before him. He was born on December 15, 1849, and 
was educated at the public schools and the College of the City 
of New York. He was an excellent scholar, especially in mathe- 
matical studies. On leaving college at the end of his first year, 
he entered the banking and brokerage house of H. C. Stimson & 
Co. as a clerk, and there acquired a thorough training in the 
business of Wall Street, and made the acquamtanee of many 
leaders of finance- 
Mr. Connor became a member of the Stock Exchange on Oc- 
tober 6, 1871, and soon became a conspicuous figure in that body. 
Clear-headed, prompt, devoted to the interests of his clients, and 
agreeable in manner, he won a large number of important 
patrons. He soon attracted the notice of Jay Gould, and was 
intrusted by him with some important commissions. These 
Mr. Connor executed with brilliant success, and the result was 
that Mr. Gould, a keen judge of men, in 1881 formed a partner- 
ship with the young broker, under the name of W. E. Connor & 
Co. Of this firm George J. Gould became a member on attain- 
ing his majority. For many years Mr. Connor was Jay Gould's 
confidential representative, and had the management of most 
of his important operations on Wall Street. Mr. Connor was 
also a favorite broker of Russell Sage and other prominent 
capitalists. 

In all his operations Mr. Connor has been distinguished by his 
ability to keep his own counsel. When, for example, Jay Gould 
made his famous Western Union Telegraph campaign, which re- 

80 



WASHINGTON EVEEETT CONNOR 81 

suited in the transfer of the control of that corporation from the 
Vanderbilts to him, Mr. Connor personally conducted all the 
operations, and did it so skilfully that Wall Street was under 
the impression that his fh"m was heavily short of the stock, 
when, in fact, it was the principal buyer of it. 

In the panic of 1884: it was ascertained that W. E. Connor & 
Co. were boiTowers to the extent of twelve million dollars, and a 
combination was promptly formed to drive them into bankruptcy. 
The attack was made chiefly upon Missouri Pacific stock. But 
Mr. Connor and Mr. Gould were more than a match for the 
Street. They not only held their own, but, when the day of 
reckoning came, no less than one hundred and forty-seven houses 
were found short of Missouri Pacific, and were forced to " cover" 
at heavy losses to themselves, and at great profit to W. E. 
Connor & Co. 

Mr. Gould retired from Wall Street in 1886, and a year later 
Mr. Connor, having amassed an ample fortune, followed his 
example. He retained, however, an active interest in many 
raikoad and other corporations. Among these are the Louis- 
ville, New Albany and Chicago, and the Wheeling and Lake Erie 
raih'oads, the Western Union Telegraph, the Credit Mobilier, 
the Texas and Colorado Improvement Company, the Manhattan 
Elevated Railway, the New Jersey Southern Railroad, and the 
Central Construction Company. 

Mr. Connor has a fine home in New York city, and a summer 
home at Seabright, New Jersey. He is devoted to yachting 
and other forms of recreation, and is a conspicuous figure in 
metropolitan society. He belongs to the Union League, Lo- 
tus, Republican, American Yacht, and various other clubs, 
the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Natural His- 
tory, and the Metroi^olitau Opera House Company. He is a 
member of the highest standing of the Masonic fraternity. In 
1877-78 he was master of St. Nicholas Lodge 321 ; in 1879 he 
was District Deputy Grand Master of the Sixth Masonic Dis- 
trict ; in 1884 he was Grand Representative of the Grand Lodge 
of New York, and in 1887-89 Grand Treasurer of the same. He 
has also been Grand Representative of the Grand Lodge of 
England. 



HENRY HARYEY COOK 



FROM ancient records it appears that Captain Thomas Cook 
of Earle's Colne, Essex, England, came to Boston early 
in the seventeenth centmy, and in 1637 settled at Taunton, in 
the Plymouth Colony, of which place he was one of the pro- 
prietors, and finally, in 1643, removed to Pocasset, now Ports- 
mouth, Rhode Island. His family in England was of noble 
extraction, with annals dating back almost to the Norman Con- 
quest. In New England the family became conspicuous for its 
private virtues and its energy in promoting the public weal. 

In the last generation Judge Constant Cook hved at Wan-en, 
New York, and married Maria Whitney. To them was born at 
Cohocton, New York, on May 22, 1822, a son, to whom they 
gave the name of Henry Harvey Cook. The boy was sent to 
school at Cohocton until his eighteenth year, and then to an 
academy at Canandaigua for two years, thus completing his 
studies. After leaving school he served for a year as a dry-goods 
clerk at Auburn, New York, and then another year ia the same 
capacity at Bath. Then, in 1844, he opened a store of his own 
at Bath, and conducted it with such success that at the end of 
ten years he was able to retire from it with a handsome fortune. 

Mr. Cook's next venture was the organization, in company 
with his father, of the Bank of Bath, a State institution, in 
April, 1854. Of it he was cashier, and it had a prosperous career 
for just ten years. Then, in April, 1864, it was organized as a 
national bank, and again for just ten years Mr. Cook served as 
its cashier, and its prosperity remained unabated. In 1874 his 
father, the president of the bank, died, and Mr. Cook was elected 
its president in his place, and still holds that office. 

The presidency of the bank was not sufficient, however, to 



82 





V^\ 




c^v 




HENRY HARVEY COOK 83 

engross all Ms attention. In 1875 he came to New York and 
entered its financial and railroad businesses, in which he has 
achieved marked success. He has become a du-ector of the 
Union Pacific, the New York, Lake Erie and Western, and the 
Buffalo, New York and Erie railroads, the American Sm-ety Com- 
pany, the State Trust Company, the National Bank of North 
America, and the Washington Life Insm-ance Company. 

Mr. Cook has made his home chiefly in this city since 1875, 
his house on the upper part of Fifth Avenue ranking among the 
finest on Manhattan Island. He has also a splendid place at 
Lenox, Massachusetts, which he has named " Wheatleigh," after 
the estate of one of his ancestors. Sir Henry Cook of Yorkshire, 
England. In his houses he has large and valuable libraries and 
collections of paintings and other works of art. 

The clubs of which Mr. Cook is a member include the Union 
League, Metropolitan, and Riding, of New York, and he belongs 
also to the Metropohtan Museum of Art, the American Natiu'al 
Histoiy Museum, the American Fine Ai-ts Society, the New 
York Geological Society, and the New York Historical Society. 
Like his father, he belongs to the Protestant Episcopal Church, 
and is a vestryman of St. Thomas's parish in New York. 

Mr. Cook was married, on September 27, 1848, to Miss Mary 
McCay, daughter of William Wallace McCay of Bath, New York, 
who for many years was the principal agent and manager of the 
Poultney estate. They have five daughters : Mariana, wife of 
Chnton D. McDougall of Auburn, New York; Maria Louise, 
wife of Judge M. Rumsey Miller of Bath ; Sarah ]\IcCay, wife 
of Charles F. Gansen of Buffalo ; Fanny Howell, wife of Jolm 
Henry Keene of Baltimore, Maryland ; and Geoi'gie Bruce, wife 
of Carlos de Heredia of Paris, France. 





PAUL DRENNAN CRAVATH 



THOSE who remember the days " before the war," the days of 
antislavery agitation and of the reahnement of pohtical par- 
ties, will readily recall the name of OiTen B. Cravath, of Homer, 
New York. He was one of the most earnest of antislavery 
men, and one of the founders of the Republican party in the 
State of New York, being a delegate to its first State Convention. 
He had come to New York from Connecticut, and his ancestors, 
originally from England, had hved for five generations in Massa- 
chusetts. His son, Erastus Milo Cravath, became a clergyman, 
hved for some years in Ohio, and has now been for a long time 
president of Fisk University, at Nashville, Tennessee. He mar- 
ried IVIiss Ruth Jackson, daughter of Caleb Sharpless Jackson 
of Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, a prominent abolitionist and 
member of the Society of Friends, and descendant of a family 
that had come from England and had hved in Chester County, 
Pennsylvania, for six generations before him. 

To the Rev. Dr. Erastus Cravath a son was bom at Berhn 
Heights, Ohio, on July 14, 1861, to whom he gave the names 
of Paul Drennan, and whom, when he became old enough, 
he sent to that institution beloved of antislavery folk, Oberhn 
College. There Paul D. Cravath was graduated in 1882. Foiu* 
years later he was graduated from the Law School of Columbia 
College, receiving the first prize in mimicipal law and the 
prize appointment as instructor in the law school for three 
years following graduation. It may be added that he had gone 
from Oberhn to Minneapolis in 1882. and had read law at the 
latter place for some months, until his studies were interrupted 
by illness. Then he traveled and engaged in business for more 
than a year, not coming to Columbia untU the fall of 1884. 



PAUL DRENNAN CRAVATH 85 

After graduation in law, and while acting as instructor in Colum- 
bia, he served as a clerk in the law office of Messrs. Carter, 
Hornblower & Byrne. 

That firm was dissolved in 1888, and Mr. Cravath then became 
a member of the firm of Carter, Hughes & Cravath. Two years 
later it, too, dissolved, and then the firm of Cravath & Houston 
was foi-med, which still exists. IVIr. Cravath has since his admis- 
sion to the bar applied himself exclusively to the practice of his 
profession, and has achieved marked success. He has been for 
some years counsel for the Westinghouse Air Brake Company, 
the Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company, and 
several important electric illuminating companies in New York, 
Brooklyn, and elsewhere. His professional work has, in fact, 
been largely in connection with corporations. 

Mr. Cravath has long taken a loyal citizen's interest in pubUc 
affairs, and has lent his time and influence to the cause of good 
government. He has been conspicuously identified with various 
movements for political reform, but has never allowed the 
use of his name as a candidate for office. His only approach to 
office-holding was his service as a delegate to the Republican 
State Convention in 1898. He is a member of the Union League 
Club, the University Club, the Lawyers' Club, the New England 
Society, and the Ohio Society, and takes an active interest in 
promoting the prosperity of them all. 

In 1893 Mr. Cravath was married to Miss Agnes Huntington, 
a member of the well-known New York family of that name, 
who was at that time famed as one of the most accomplished 
singers of the world. They have one child, who bears the name 
of Vera Agnes Huntington Cravath. 




GEORGE CROCKER 



THE history of the world is rudely divided into the records of 
various so-called ages. There is the half-uij4hical stone 
age. There is the golden age, of which we have prophecy of a 
better repetition ia this land. There are the dark ages. And 
so the story goes, each era being designated according to its most 
conspicuous featui-e. The present age has many claims to dis- 
tinction for many of its salient features. Perhaps it might be 
as worthily known as in any way as the age of raih'oading, or, at 
any rate, of engineeiing. It is probable that no feature of nine- 
teenth-century civilization has been more potent for changing 
the face of the world and improving the condition of the race 
than the use of steam-power for transportation on land and 
sea, and especially on land, for the contrast between the saihng- 
ship and the steamship is scarcely as great as between the stage- 
coach and the express-train. 

There were also, of old, certain classes of men who domiaated 
their respective ages, such as the knights in the age of chivalry. 
There were merchant princes in the days of Tjtc and Sidon who 
almost vied with monarchs in wealth and power. We have to- 
day our merchant princes and captains of industry. But to 
none are we to give higher rank than to the railroad kings, who 
have literally cast up a highway and made the rough places 
smooth. They have covered the lands of the earth with roads 
for the facilitation of commerce, of industry, and of social inter- 
course. They have all but abolished time and space. They 
have made near neighbors of those who dwell at opposite sides 
of the continent. 

The careers of such men are supremely typical of the genius 
of the century which produced them, and which they, in turn, so 

80 





'^V- 



^ 



GEOKGE CROCKER 87 

largely shaped ; and among them, in this country, there are none 
more worthy of attention than the members of that remarkable 
group of men who developed the interests of the Pacific coast, 
and connected that region with the Eastern States, and with all 
the nation, with great highways of steel. 

The Crocker family is of English ancestry, and was settled in 
the United States several generations ago. In the last genera- 
tion it rose to especial distinction in the person of Charles 
Crocker, the son of a storekeeper at Troy, New York. He was 
compelled by his father's reverses in his early boyhood to take to 
selling newspapers and other occupations for self-support. His 
earnings went into the common fund of the family, which in 
time amounted to enough for the purchase of a farm in Indiana, 
whither the family removed when he was fourteen years old. 
Three years later the boy left home to make his own way in the 
world. He successively worked on a farm, in a sawmill, and at 
a forge, getting what schooling he could meanwhile. At twenty- 
three he started iron- works of his own at Michawaka, Indiana, 
and conducted that enterprise successfully for fom- years. Then, 
in 1849, gold was discovered in California, and he joined the great 
procession of fortune-seekers that removed to the Pacific coast. 

Mr. Crocker did not, however, spend much time in the mines. 
He opened a dry-goods store at Sacramento, which soon became 
the leading concern of the kind in that place, and proved highly 
profitable. In 1854 he was elected to the Common Council, and 
in 1860 to the Legislature. Then he became impressed with the 
importance of having railroad communication between California 
and the Eastern States, and in 1861 gave up his other business 
and devoted all his energy, abihty, attention, and fortune to the 
task of building the Central Pacific Raih'oad. He was one of 
the four men who agreed to pay, out of their own pockets, for 
the labor of eight hundred men for one year, and who pledged 
their entire fortunes to the accomplishment of the great task 
before them. The others were Leland Stanford, Mark Hopkins, 
and CoUis P. Himtington. Each of these men played a separate 
part in the enterprise. Mr. Crocker was the superintendent of 
construction. He personally directed the building of some of 
the most difficult parts of the line over the Sierra Nevada, and 
never relaxed his efforts until the line was completed in 1869. 



88 GEORGE CBOCKER 

Then he joined his three associates in building the Southern 
Pacific Raih-oad, and became its president in 1871, as well as 
vice-president of the Central Pacific. He personally superin- 
tended the building of much of the Southern road. He was also 
a large purchaser of land in Cahfomia, including much of the 
water-front of Oakland. He was the principal owner of the 
Crocker-Huffman Land and Water Company at Merced, and his 
estate now owns the assets of that enterprise, comprising forty- 
two thousand acres of land, a lake of seven hundred acres, and 
eighteen miles of irrigating canals. 

Late in life Mr. Crocker made his home in New York, where 
he had a fine house, with notable collections of paintings, bronzes, 
and ceramics. He was married, in 1852, to Miss Mary Ann 
Deming, a lady of EngHsh origin, and granddaughter of Seth 
Read, a lieutenant-colonel in the Revolutionary army. He left 
four children : Colonel Charles F. Crocker, lately vice-president 
of the Southern Pacific Railroad, and director of the corporation 
of Wells, Fargo & Co., who married Miss Easton, a ni^ce of Mr. 
D. O. Mills ; Greorge Crocker ; Wilham H. Crocker ; and Harriet 
Crocker, wife of Charles B. Alexander of New York. 

George Crocker, the second son of Charles Crocker, was born at 
Sacramento, California, on February 10, 1856. He was educated 
at first in the schools of that city, and afterward at the Polytechnic 
Institute of Brooklyn, New York. After leaving the latter in- 
stitution, he spent some time in Em-opean travel. On his return 
to the United States he naturally turned his attention to the 
business in which his father had won so great distinction. His 
father's wealth made it unnecessary for him to engage in any 
struggle for a livelihood, but in order thoroughly to acquaint 
himself with the business he began at the bottom of the ladder, 
in a clerkship in the operating department of the Southern Pacific 
Raih'oad. After a time he purchased an extensive cattle-ranch 
in Utah and undertook the management of it. 

From the last-named enterprise he was recalled, in August, 
1888, by the death of his father. He then joined his elder bro- 
ther in assuming the management of the vast railroad and other 
interests of the estate, devoting his attention chiefly to the rail- 
roads. He has, indeed, since that time, been following the railroad 
business with exceptional zeaL 



GEORGE CROCKER 89 

Mr. Crocker is now second vice-president of the Southern 
Pacific Raih-oad Company, of which his brother, the late Charles 
F. Crocker, was first vice-president. He is also president of the 
Oriental and Occidental Steamship Company, president of the 
Crocker Estate Company, president of the Carbon Hill Coal 
Company, president of the Rocky Mountain Coal and Iron 
Company, president of the Promontory Ranch Company, vice- 
president of the Pacific Improvement Company, and a special 
partner in the brokerage firm of Price, McCormick & Co. He 
is also interested as an investor in many other enterprises. 

In the early fall of 1899 it was announced that the Crocker 
interests in the Southern Pacific Railroad had been purchased 
by an Anglo-American sjmdicate of which ColUs P. Huntington 
was the head. These holdings, it was said, amounted to some 
three himdi"ed and forty thousand shares of stock, of which the 
value was variously stated at from ten million dollars to fifteen 
million dollars. It was said that the figures paid by the pur- 
chasers were a little above the latter amount, and that George 
Crocker's share of the proceeds of the sale would be something 
better than four million dollars. This sum he was reported to 
be about to invest in real estate, largely in New York, but to 
some extent in San Francisco and Chicago. It was also stated 
that henceforth Mr. Crocker will make his home chiefly in New 
York, out of deference to the desire of his wife. 

Mr. Crocker has made his home in this city for a great part of 
the time in recent years, and is a familiar figure in the best social 
circles of the metropolis. He is a member of the Metropolitan, 
New York, Lawyers', New York Athletic, Transportation, West- 
chester, and Stock Exchange Lunch clubs, and is a governor of 
the Eastern Fields Trial Club. In San Francisco, where he is 
equally at home, he belongs to the Pacific, Union, University, 
Country, and Olympic clubs. 

He was married at St. Thomas's Church, in this city, on June 
5, 1894, to Mrs. Emma Hanchett Rutherford of San Francisco. 
He owns a home at the comer of Fifth Avenue and Sixty -fourth 
Street, having recently built it, where he fives when in New 
York. Mr. Crocker has become interested in New York real 
estate and business buildings to the extent of several millions of 
dollars. 



90 GEORGE CEOCKER 

Mr. Crocker made, in the summer of 1879, one of the swiftest 
raih'oad rides on record in the United States. He was in New 
York when he heard of the hopeless illness of his elder bi'other, 
Charles F. Crocker, and was informed that only the utmost ex- 
pedition would offer him any promise of seeing him ahve. At 
the earhest possible moment the start was made, in a desperate 
race against time from one side of the continent to the other. 
It was then seen what the highest achievements and resoiu-ces of 
modern engineering, acting in response to the dictates of un- 
hmited wealth, could do. All the way across the continent phe- 
nomenal time was made, and on the home stretch all fonner 
records were broken. The run from Ogden to Oakland was by 
far the quickest ever made on that section of the Pacific Rail- 
road. A few days before, the younger brother, W. H. Crocker, 
had made a flying trip over it on the same errand, but George 
Crocker surpassed his record by some hours. Leaving Ogden at 
12:49 p. M., the wharf at Oakland was reached at 9:10 A. M. the 
next day, the nm of eight hundred and thirty-three miles being 
made without a stop. A swift feny-boat bore him to the other 
side of the bay, where another special train was in waiting, to 
bear him to San Mateo. He reached the latter place to fiind his 
brother still alive, though unconscious. 

Colonel Charles F. Crocker, to whose death-bed his brother thus 
hastened, was the eldest of the family, being two years older 
than Greorge Crocker. He received an education similar to that 
of George Crocker, and then devoted liimself to the raih-oad and 
other interests of his father. He was also interested in educa- 
tional and other affau's, being president of the Cahf omia Academy 
of Sciences, and a trustee of Leland Stairford University. On his 
death he left one daughter and two sons. The daughter, Miss 
Mary Crocker, reached the age of eighteen years in the fall of 
1899, and at that time came into possession of the great fortune 
bequeathed to her by her father and held for her by the trustees 
of his will. This fortune, amounting to about four million 
dollars, made her the wealthiest unmarried woman in California. 



! 



JOSEPH FRANCIS DALY 



THE distinguished jurist whose name heads this sketch is of 
pure Irish ancestry. His father, Dennis Daly of Limerick, 
was a purser's clerk in the British navy, and afterward came to 
this country and engaged in the shipping trade. In Jamaica, 
West Indies, he met Ehzabeth Theresa Duffey, daughter of 
Lieutenant John Duffey of the British army, and married her in 
this city. Afterward he settled at Plymouth, North Carolina, 
in the house once occupied by John Randolph of Roanoke, and 
there were born his two sons, Augustin, the eminent di'amatic 
manager, and Joseph Francis. 

The latter was born on December 3, 1840. At the age of nine 
years he was brought by his widowed mother to New York, and 
was educated in the pubUc schools. In 1855 he became a clerk 
in a law office, and in 1862 was admitted to the bar. He soon 
rose to prominence, especially in the movement for reform of 
the municipal government. He was associated with Charles 
O'Conor, Benjamin D. SiUiman, and other eminent men, and 
drafted many statutes which are still on the books as bulwarks 
of good government. In 1865 he appeared before the governor 
to argue for the prosecution of unfaithful officials. In 1870 he 
was elected a judge of the Court of Common Pleas for a term of 
foiu'teen years, and in 1884 he was reelected for another such 
tei-m. In 1890 his associates chose him to be chief judge of that 
bench, and when that com't was consohdated with the Supreme 
Com-t, he became a justice of the latter, and thus served out the 
remainder of his term. 

Upon the bench Justice Daly was eminently dignified and im- 
partial. He was unwilling to submit to any political or other 
extraneous influences. On more than one occasion he refused to 

91 



92 JOSEPH FRANCIS DALY 

obey the dictates of the " boss " of the Democratic party. The 
latter accordingly marked him for punishment, and, on the expi- 
ration of his term in 1898, directed that he should not be re- 
nominated. Justice Daly's eminent fitness for the bench was 
generally recognized. The Eepubhcan party, though he was a 
Democrat, nominated him for reelection, and the Bar Associa- 
tion enthusiastically approved its action and worked for his suc- 
cess. He was recognized to stand for the principle of a pure 
and impartial judiciary. But the power of the " boss " was too 
great, and he was defeated, though such defeat was no dishonor. 

Justice Daly has long been a favorite orator on public oc- 
casions, and a strong friend of Ireland in her struggles for 
self-government. As a trustee of the National Federation of 
America he presented the address of welcome to the Earl of 
Aberdeen on his visit here in 1892, and as president of the 
Cathohc Club he welcomed the Lord Chief Justice of England, 
Lord RusseU of Killowen, in 1896. He was chairman of the 
joint committee of the Cathohc Historical Society and Catholic 
Club on the quadricentenary of the landing of Columbus, and 
presided at the meeting of citizens on May 5, 1898, in honor of 
the twenty -fifth anniversary of the episcopate of the Ai-chbishop 
of New York. In 1889 he, with his brother Augustin, Edwin 
Booth, Lawrence Barrett, Joseph Jefferson, and others, incorpo- 
rated the now famous Players' Club, He is still a member of it, 
is president of the Catholic Club, member of the Metropoh- 
tan, Manhattan, and Democratic clubs, the Southera Society, 
Dunlap Society, Friendly Sons of St. Patrick, Gaehc Society, 
Law Institute, Bar Association, American-Irish Historical Soci- 
ety, American Geographical Society, Legal Aid Society, Catholic 
Summer School, Champlain Club, manager of the Roman Cath- 
olic Orphan Asylum, and member of the advisory board of St. 
Vincent's Hospital. In 1883 he received the degree of LL. D. 
from St. John's College, Fordham. 

He married, in 1873, the stepdaughter of Judge Hamilton W. 
Robinson, Miss Emma Robinson Barker, who died in 1886, leav- 
ing him two sons and a daughter. In 1890 he married Miss 
Mary Louise Smith, daughter of Edgar M. Smith. 




\ 



L. 



ELLIOT DANFORTH 

ELLIOT DANFORTH, who for many years has been promi- 
nent as a lawyer, poUtical leader, and pubhc official in the 
State of New York, was born at Middleburg, Schoharie County, 
New York, on March 6, 1850. His mother, whose maiden name 
was Am-eha Lintner, was of German descent. His father, Peter 
Swart Danforth, was of Enghsh descent, and was a State Senator 
in 1854r-55, and became a justice of the Supreme Court of the 
State in 1872. 

ElMot Danforth early manifested a particularly studious dispo- 
sition, and this led to his acquiring the most thorough education 
possible, in the common schools and in Schoharie Academy. He 
then tm-ned his attention to legal studies in his father's office, 
and at the age of twenty-one years, in 1871, was admitted to 
practice at the bar. For a few years he practised in his native 
village with much success. Then, in 1878, he removed to Bain- 
bridge, Chenango County, where he formed a partnership with 
the Hon. George H. Winsor, one of the foremost lawyers of that 
part of the State, and that association lasted until Mr. Winsor's 
death, in 1880. Mr. Danforth's legal career has since that date 
been marked with much success, and he has served as a member 
of numerous committees of the State Bar Association. 

Mr. Danforth began in his cliildhood to take an ardent interest 
in politics, and upon reaching years of manhood he became what 
might be termed a practical politician, identified with the Demo- 
cratic party. His first public office was that of President of the 
village of Bainbridge, to which he was elected for several terms. 
He was a delegate to the National Democratic Convention in 
1880, and was the youngest of all the New York State delegates. 
In the fall of that year he was unanimously nominated for Rep- 

93 



94 ELLIOT DANFOETH 

resentative in Congress by the Democratic Convention of his dis- 
trict, but declined the nomination. He was also widely men- 
tioned as a candidate for State Treasurer, Foui" years later he 
was again a delegate to the National Democratic Convention, 
and in that year's campaign gave earnest and effective support 
to the Presidential candidacy of Mr. Cleveland, who was elected. 

Soon after the election of L. J. Fitzgerald as State Treasurer, 
in 1885, Mr. Danforth was appointed to be his Deputy, and at 
the expiration of his tenn was reappointed, thus serving through 
the years of 1886-89. At the Democratic State Convention in 
1889 he was unanimously nominated for State Treasurer, and 
was duly elected by more than 16,000 plurality. Two years later 
he was renominated for another term in the same office, and was 
reelected by about 50,000 plurality. 

Mr. Danforth was the Democratic candidate for Lieutenant- 
Governor in 1898, but was defeated, although leading the head 
of the ticket by 12,000 votes. He was a delegate to the National 
Democratic conventions of 1892 and 1896, chairman of the New 
York State Democratic Committee in 1896-98, and chairman of 
the executive committee of that committee in 1899. He was 
for several years president of the First National Bank of Bain- 
bridge, New York, and also president of the Board of Education 
of that place. 

Mr. Danforth is now practising law in the city of New York, 
and is identified with its professional and social activities. His 
law offices are in the Home Life Insurance Company's Building, 
on Broadway, opposite City Hall Park. He is a member of the 
Democratic Club, the chief social organization of the Democratic 
party, the Lotus Club, and the orders of Free Masons, Odd Fel- 
lows, Knights of Pythias, and Elks. 

In 1874, on December 17 of that year. Mi*. Danforth married 
Miss Ida Prince, the only daughter of Di*. Grervis Prince, presi- 
dent of the First National Bank of Bainbridge. She died in New 
York city on October 5, 1895, leaving him two childi-en, Edward 
and Mary. He married a second time, in New York, on Novem- 
ber 30, 1898, his second bride being Mrs. Katharine Black Laim- 
beer. 





'7^(2) 



'J 



JULIEN TAPPAN DAYIES 



JULIEN TAPPAN DAVIE S, who ranks among the most suc- 
cessful lawyers of the metropolis, is of Welsh descent. His 
family hue is traced back to Rodic Maur, from whom the seventh 
in descent was the famous Cymric Efell, Lord of Eylwys Eyle, 
who lived in the year 1200. From him, in turn, was descended 
Robert Davies of Gwysany Castle, Mold, Flintshire, who was 
bom in 1606, and who was high sheriff of Flintshire and Knight 
of the Royal Oak. A descendant of Robert Davies, named Jobn 
Davies, came to America in 1735, and settled in Litchfield, Con- 
necticut. He was a man of wealth and influence. From him, in 
tm-n, was descended the late Thomas John Davies, judge of St. 
Lawrence County, New York. The three sons of the latter were 
Professor Charles Davies, the eminent mathematician, the late 
Chief Justice Henry E. Davies of New York, and Major-General 
Thomas Alfred Davies. 

The subject of this sketch is the fourth son of the late Chief 
Justice Henry E. Davies. He was born in New York city on 
September 25, 184:5, and was carefully educated. He was sent 
to the famoiis Mount Washington Collegiate Institute, on 
Washington Square, New York city. Next he studied at the 
Walnut Hill School, at Gleneva, New York, and thence pro- 
ceeded to Columbia College. From the last-named institution 
he was graduated in 1866, with the degree of A. B, 

Upon leaving college, Mr. Davies, who had already fixed upon 
the law as his profession, entered as a student the law office of 
Alexander W. Bradford of New York, and there was prepared 
for admission to the bar. Such admission was secured on No- 
vember 6, 1867. Such early entrance to the bar was due to the 
responsibihties which had been thrust upon him by the death of 



96 JULIEN TAPPAN DAVIES 

Mr. Bradford. That geutleman left the conduct of his business, 
by vnW, to his partner, Mr. Harrison, and to Mr. Da\'ies. This 
made it necessaiy for Mr. Davies to seek immediate admission to 
the bar. He also entered into partnership with Mr. Harrison, 
and thus came into a large law practice. At the same time he 
continued his studies in the Law School of Columbia Collese. 
from which he was graduated in 1868 with the degree of LL. B., 
at the same time receiving the degree of A. M. from the college. 
Mr. Davies was afterward associated in practice with his father, 
who retired from the bench and resumed legal practice in 
January, 1869. 

Mr. Davies joined the Twenty-Second Regiment, N. Gr. N. Y., 
in 1863, as a private, being then only eighteen years old. He 
saw active service in the campaign which culminated at Gettys- 
burg. 

The law practice of Mr. Davies has been chiefly in connection 
with two gi'eat corporations. He has been for many years coun- 
sel of the Manhattan Elevated Railway Company, and carried 
through the com-ts a most important series of cases establishing 
its franchises and the principles of its hability for damages to 
property. He is also counsel for and a trustee of the Mutual 
Life Insurance Company. He is a Republican in politics, and 
is actively interested in the duties of citizenship and the eleva- 
tion of the standard of municipal administration, but has held 
no political office. 

Mr. Davies is a member of various professional and social 
organizations of the highest class. He was manned on April 22, 
1869, to Miss Alice Martin, daughter of Henry H. Martin, a 
banker of Albany, New York. 




I? 




uJfA^J^^JtA 




WILLIAM GILBERT DAYIES 



THE name of Da vies is unmistakably of Welsh origin. It 
has been well known in Wales and the adjacent parts of 
England for centuries, and is at the present time a common one 
there, and is borne by many men of light and leading. The 
branch of the Davies family now under consideration traces its 
history back to ancient times in Flintshire, where its members 
were among the foremost men of their day, and the family one 
of the most distinguished. From Flintshire some members of 
it removed, centuries ago, to the town of Kington, in the Welsh- 
English county of Hereford, and there John Davies was born 
and lived to manhood. He came to this country in 1735, being 
the first of his family to do so, and settled at Litchfield, Connec- 
ticut, within sight of the hills which reminded him to some 
degree of his native hills of Wales. He maiTied Catherine 
Spencer, a lady of Enghsh ancestry, and for many years was 
one of the foremost citizens of Litchfield, and indeed of the 
western part of Connecticut. 

A son of this couple, also named John Davies, married EMza- 
beth Brown, and continued to live at Litchfield. His son, the 
third John Davies, married Eunice Hotchkiss. His son, Thomas 
John Davies, removed from Litchfield to St. Lawrence County, 
New York, in 1800, and became sheriff and county judge. His 
son, Heniy E. Davies, the fifth of the Hue in this country, be- 
came a lawyer, came to New York city, and Avas long a prom- 
inent figure in professional and public life. He was successively 
an alderman, corporation counsel, justice of the Supreme Court, 
and chief justice of the Court of Appeals. He married Rebecca 
Waldo Tappan of Boston, a niece of the abolitionist leaders, 
Arthur and Lewis Tappan, and a descendant of one of the most 

97 



98 WILLIAM GILBERT DAVIES 

distiBguished of New England families. Miss Tappan was also 
related by descent to the Quineys, Wendells, Salisbuiys, and 
other New England famihes, and also to that famous Anneke 
Jans whose heirs have so often laid claim to vast possessions in 
New York city. 

William Gilbert Davies is a son of Henry E. Davies and Re- 
becca Tappan Davies, and was born in this city on March 21, 
1842. He acquired collegiate education at Trinity College, Hart- 
ford, Connecticut, where he was graduated in 1860, and at the 
University of Leipzig, Germany. In 1863 he was admitted to 
practise law at the bar of the State of New York, and entered 
earnestly upon the pursuit of the profession his father had so 
greatly adorned. During the Civil War, then raging, he served 
for a time in the Twenty-second Regiment, New York Mihtia, 
dm'ing the Gettysburg campaign. 

It was in the law ofi&ce of Slosson, Hutchins & Piatt, and in 
the Law School of Columbia College, that Mi\ Davies was pre- 
pared for his career as a lawyer. His first partnership in prac- 
tice was formed with Henry H. Anderson, but on August 1, 1866, 
the partnership was dissolved, and Mr. Davies entered the service 
of the Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York. The law 
department of that corporation was fully organized in September, 
1870, with J. V. L. Pruyn as solicitor, and with Mr. Davies as 
his assistant. In that place Mr. Davies remained until May 20, 
1885, when he became the head of the department. 

The law of life-insurance was then practically an unknown 
quantity, the system itself being in its infancy, and but few 
questions having been presented to the courts for decision. 
During the succeeding quarter of a century, with the enormous 
growth of that form of insurance, new problems were constantly 
presented for solution, and Mr. Davies, as counsel for one of the 
leading companies, was largely instrumental in establishing the 
rules of law relating to that subject as they exist to-day. He 
resigned his position in December, 1893, to resume the active 
practice of his profession, since which time he has been chiefly 
engaged as a referee and in street-opening proceedings, having 
received many appointments to such positions. His most con- 
spicuous service of this character was on the commission for 
widening and extending Elm Street from Great Jones Street to 



WILLIAM GILBERT DAVIES 99 

the City Hall, which great public improvement was carried 
through in an unprecedentedly short time, thus eifecting a great 
saving of expense to the city, and greatly diminishing the in- 
jmy to the property-owners. 

Important as have been the duties of his profession, they have 
by no means monopolized Mr. Davies's attention. His ripe 
scholarship and finished literary style have made him a welcome 
contributor to current literature. His discussion of "Myste- 
rious Disappearances and Presumptions of Death in Insurance 
Cases " has been published and become a classic. He was en- 
gaged as a lecturer in the New York University Law School 
in 1891. He was one of the chief promoters of the Medico- 
legal Society, and from 1886 to 1889 was chairman of its board 
of trustees. 

A paper on " Medical Jurisprudence and its Relations to Life- 
Insiu'ance," read before the Insiu'ance Convention held at Chi- 
cago during the Centennial Exposition of 1893, was widely 
quoted and favorably commented upon by the insurance press 
at the time. 

Mr. Davies is a prominent member of numerous professional 
and social organizations. Among these are the New York His- 
torical Society, the New York Biographical and Grenealogical 
Society, the Medicolegal Society, the New England Society, the 
Society of the Sons of the Revolution, the New England His- 
torical-Genealogical Society, the Virginia Historical Society, 
the Phi Beta Kappa Alumni Association, the Liederkranz 
Society, the Society of Colonial Wars, the Centuiy Association, 
and the Union, University, Lawyers', Manhattan, Tuxedo, GroHer, 
Democratic, and St. Nicholas clubs. He belongs also to the 
American, New York State, and New York City bar associa- 
tions, and the Law Institute. 

He was married, in 1870, to Miss Lucie Rice, daughter of the 
Hon. Alexander H. Rice, who was for three terms Governor of 
the State of Massachusetts. His New York home is at No. 22 
East Forty-fifth Street. 



Lore. 



CHARLES WILLOUGHBY DAYTON 



CHARLES WILLOUGHBY DAYTON'S American ances- 
try has included merchants, authors, soldiers, physicians, 
and statesmen. His grandfather, Charles Willoughby Dayton 
born at Stratford, Connecticut, became a leading merchant of 
New York. He married a daughter of Francis Child, of Hugue- 
not descent, and they had a son named Abraham Child Dayton, 
who was a contributor to some of the foremost periodicals of his 
day, and was also a leading member of the New York Stock 
Exchange. His wife was Marie A. Tonilinson, a daughter of 
Dr. David Tomlinson of Derby, Connecticut, and afterward of 
Rhinebeck, New York, a member of the New York Legislature 
and a prominent member of the medical profession. Dr. Tom- 
Hnson's wife, Cornelia Adams, was a gi-anddaughter of Andrew 
Adams, one of the signers of the Articles of Confederation, 
Speaker of the Continental Congress, and chief justice of the 
State of Connecticut. 

The son of Abraham Child Dayton and Marie Tomhnson 
Dayton, who forms the subject of this present sketch, was born 
in Brooklyn, New York, on October 3, 1846, but since childhood 
has lived in the city of New York and the borough of Manhat- 
tan. He entered the College of the City of New York in 1861, 
and was graduated from tlie Law School of Columbia University 
in 1868, and has since been a practising lawj-er of this city. 

From his youth Mr. Dayton has been an ardent Democrat and 
has taken an active part in political affairs. In the campaign of 
1861 he took the stump and made many effective speeches for 
General McClellan. In 1881 he was a member of the State 
Assembly and of its judiciary committee. The next year he 
organized the Harlem Democratic Club, and was a leader of the 

100 



CHARLES WILLOUGHBY DAYTON 101 

Citizens' Reform movement, which gave Allau Campbell seventy- 
eio'ht thousand votes for Mayor after a cami)aign of only ten 
days. In 1884 he was secretary of the Electoral College of the 
State of New York. In 1881, 1882, 1883, and 1892 he was a dele- 
o-ate to Democratic State conventions, and in 1893 he was elected 
a member of the New York State Constitutional Convention. 

In the last-named year he was appointed by President Cleve- 
land as Postmaster of New York. In that office he introduced 
many reforms which were appreciated by the employees, the 
public, and his superiors at Washington. His resignation as 
postmaster, on May 22, 1897, was followed, in June of tliat year, 
by a banquet tendered to him by fifteen hundi-ed letter-carriers 
at the Grand Central Palace. There is now in the New York 
Postmaster's room a bronze portrait bust of Mr. Dayton, the cost 
of which was provided by fifty-cent subscriptions from four 
thousand postal employees, inscribed as follows : 

CHARLES WILLOUGHBY DAYTON, 

Postmaster at New York, 

Appointed by President Cleveland 

June 3, 1893. 

Erected February, 1897, 

by the employees of the New York Post-Ofifice, 

who desire to perpetuate Mr. Dayton's record for 

efi&ciency, discipline, justice, courtesy, and kindness. 

In the Democratic convention of 1897 he was the most popular 
candidate for Mayor of Greater New York. His nomination 
did not suit the purposes of " Crokerism," which so dominated 
the " leaders " that his name was not presented, notwithstanding 
the imminence of a stampede in his behalf. 

He is a member of the Bar Association of New York city, and 
one of the executive committee of the State Bar Association. 
He is a member of the Harlem Democratic, Sagamore, and 
Players' clubs, the Down-Town Association, and Sons of the 
Revolution, and is a governor of the Manhattan Club. He is a 
director of the Seventh National, TweKth Ward, and Empke 
City savings-banks, and the United States Life Insurance 
Company. He was married, in 1871, to Laura A. Newman, 
daughter of John B. Newman, M. D., and has three children. 



HENRY WHEELER DE FOREST 



IT has long been a truism that ours is the most composite of 
nations. Within its borders may be found men of every 
tribe and nation, some of recent anival upon these shores, some 
descended from those who settled here centuries ago. Fittingly, 
too, the chief city of the nation is the most cosmopohtan of all. 
At least three separate nationalities contributed to its founding, 
while, as the principal gate of entry into the United States, it 
has long received the vast majority of all new-comers into the 
land. Conspicuous among those who have contributed to the 
growth of the city, and indeed one of the three founders of it, are 
the French, and especially the Huguenot French, who came 
hither with the Dutch. 

The De Forest family, which has long enjoyed deserved prom- 
inence in this country, is of French Huguenot origin. Its fii-st 
representative in America was Jesse De Forest, who fled from 
France to Leydeu, and thence came to New York in 1623. A 
direct descendant of his, in the last generation, was Henry Grant 
De Forest of New York city. He married Miss Julia Mary 
Weeks, and to them the subject of this sketch was bom. 

Henry Wheeler De Forest was born in New York city on Oc- 
tober 29, 1855. His schooling was begun in New York. Later 
he was sent to boarding-school at Deerfield, Massachusetts, and 
thence to Williston Seminary, at Easthampton, Massachusetts, 
where he was prepared for college. He entered Yale at the age 
of sixteen, and was graduated there in the class of 1876. From 
Yale he returned to New York, and entered the Law School of 
Columbia University, where he was graduated with the degree of 
LL. B. in 1877. 

Upon his graduation from the Columbia Law School Mr. De 



102 



HENRY WHEELER DE FOREST 103 

Forest was admitted to the bar of New York, and forthwith 
entered upon the practice of his profession. In 1878 he became 
associated with his brother, Robert Weeks De Forest, first under 
the firm-name of De Forest & Weeks, and more recently under 
the present title of De Forest Brothers. 

In addition to an extensive law practice, Mr. De Forest is or 
has been connected with various business enterprises, corpora- 
tions, and charitable associations. He was for some years 
president of the New Jersey and New York Railroad Company, 
and is a director of the Knickerbocker and Hudson Ti-ust com- 
panies, and of the Niagara and British-American Insurance 
companies, a tmstee of the Bank for Savings, and of the New 
York Infirmary for Women and Children, and one of the gover- 
nors of the New York Hospital. 

Mr. De Forest has never been actively engaged in politics, be- 
yond discharging the ordinary duties of a citizen. 

He is a member of various clubs and other social organizations, 
including among others the Union Club, the University Club, the 
Metropohtan Club, and the Down-Town Association. 

He was married, on August 22, 1898, to Miss Julia Oilman 
Noyes. 




ROBERT WEEKS DE FOREST 



THE De Forest family in this country is of French Huguenot 
descent, its first ancestor here having been Jesse de Forest, 
who came to New York in 1623 from Leyden, whither he had 
fled from France after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. 
Robert Weeks De Forest was born in this city on April 25, 1848, 
the son of Henry Gr. and Juha Brasher Weeks De Forest. His 
father was a son of Lockwood De Forest, a South Street mer- 
chant, and his mother was a daughter of Robert D. Weeks, the 
first president of the New Yoi'k Stock Exchange. 

After receiving a primary education in this city, Robert 
Weeks De Forest was sent to Wilhston Seminary, at Easthamp- 
ton, Massachusetts, where he was prepared for college. Then he 
entered Yale, and was graduated with honors in the class of 1870. 
Returning then to New York, he entered the Columbia College 
Law School, and received therefrom the degree of LL. B. in 1872. 
Meantime he had been admitted to practice at the bar of the 
Supreme Court of New York in the spring of 1871. A brief 
period of postgraduate study followed at the University of Bonn, 
Germany. 

Mr. De Forest began the practice of his profession in the firm 
with which his father had been connected, and of which his 
uncle, John A. Weeks, was the head. At his entry it assumed 
the name of Weeks, Forster & De Forest. Later he was a 
member of the firm of De Forest & Weeks, and since 1893 he 
has been associated with his younger brother in the firm of 
De Forest Brothers. 

The law practice of these firms has been general in its scope. 
Mr. De Forest has for many years, however, been general counsel 
for the Central Railroad of New Jersey, having become profes- 



104 




'\^ 




'^ 




ROBERT WEEKS DE FOREST 105 

sionally connected with that corporation in 1874. Since 1885 
he has been president of the Hackensack Water Company, and 
he is a director or trustee of a number of corporations, among 
them being the Niagara Fu'e Insiu-ance Company and the Conti- 
nental Trust Company of this city. He has never sought n<»r 
held pohtieal office, but has been prominent in various public 
enterprises of a benevolent or educational character. Thus he 
was a leader in the movement for a systematization of charitable 
work, and has for a number of years been president of the New 
York Charity Organization Society. He was one of the founders 
of the Provident Loan Society, an admu'able philanthropic insti- 
tution intended to obviate the evils of the ordinary pawnbroking 
system. It was fovmded in 189-i, at a time of great social distress 
in this city, when there was exceptional need of some means 
whereby the poor could raise money on temporary loans on per- 
sonal property, on equitable terms. Mr. De Forest was chosen 
the first president of it, and much of its success was due to his 
wise du'ection. He also succeeded his father as one of the man- 
agers of the Presbyterian Hospital of this city, and also as one 
of the managers of the American Bible Society. In 1889 he was 
elected a trustee of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and has 
ever since been retained in that place. 

Mr. De Forest is a member of a number of clubs, then" variety 
showing the wide range of his tastes and interests. Among them 
are the Centiu-y, University, Grolier, Seawanhaka Yacht, and 
Jekyl Island. 

He was manned, on November 12, 1872, to Miss Emily John- 
ston, the eldest daughter of John Taylor Johnston, president 
of the Central Railroad of New Jersey, and of the council of the 
University of the City of New York. Since 1880 they have lived 
at No. 7 North Washington Square, in the stately old mansion 
built by Mrs. De Forest's grandfather, John Johnston, in 1833. 
Their country home was for many years at Seabright, New 
Jersey, but is now at Cold Spring Harbor, Long Island. 

Mr. and Mrs. De Forest have foiu" children. The two sons, 
Johnston and Henry Lockwood, were graduated at Yale in 1896 
and 1897 respectively. The two daughters are named Ethel and 
Frances Emily. 



RICHARD DELAFIELD 



THE Delafield family of England and America descend from 
the Counts de la Feld of Alsace, whose lineage is one of the 
oldest in Prance. Authentic records of them appear before the 
year 1000. The ancient castle which still hears their name is 
situated in a pass of the Vosges Mountains, near the town of 
Colmar. Pope Leo IX. is said to have rested there on his way 
to Strasburg. In the cathedi'al of that city were monuments to 
two of the De la Folds, and a perpetual chantry with a pension 
of two marks per annum to provide masses for the repose of the 
soids of their dead. 

The first of the name in England was Hubertus de la Feld, 
who came over with the Conqueror and received grants of land 
in the county of Lancaster. The names of his descendants are 
numbered among the wealthy nobles under succeeding monarchs. 
Many of them were distinguished at arms and rendered services 
to their country for which they were rewarded with lands and 
titles. John Delafield, born in 1647, entered the service of the 
Emperor of Germany, fought against the Turks under Prince 
Eugene of Savoy, and was created a Count of the Holy Roman 
Empire, a dignity which descends to aU his male posterity. 

The great-great-grandson of John, Count Delafield, came to 
America late in the last centmy, married Anne HaUett of Hal- 
lett's Cove, now Astoria, in New York, and became the founder 
of the American family of his name. One of his sons, Rufus 
King Delafield, married Eliza Bard, daughter of William and 
Katherine Cruger Bard. Richard Delafield is their son. 

He was born at New Brighton, Staten Island, on September 6, 
1853, was educated at the Anthon Grammar-School, New York 
city, and at the age of twenty embarked on his business career 

106 



RICHARD DELAFIELD 107 

as a clerk in a New York mercantile house. His talent for affairs 
soon made itself apparent, and he was rapidly advanced to the 
position of manager. 

In 1880 he founded the house of Delafield & Co., and 
commenced business in the California trade. The firm, which 
is conducted on old conservative principles, is one of the most 
prosperous estabhshments in New York. Mr. Delafield is at its 
head as senior partner and capitalist in New York, Cliicago, 
St. Louis, and San Francisco. He is vice-president and director 
of the National Park Bank, vice-president of the Colonial Trust 
Company, and has been president of the Mercantile Exchange. 

He has taken no active part in politics, except to serve as 
president of the New York Commission for the World's Colum- 
bian Exposition, and as a member of the Committee of One 
Hundred at the New York Columbian Quadricentennial Cele- 
bration. He is actively interested in the affairs of the Episcopal 
Church and is a vestryman of Trinity Church Corporation. His 
clubs are the Union League, the Tuxedo, the Merchants', and 
the New York Atliletic. In musical cu-cles he is prominent, 
having been president of the Staten Island Philharmonic and 
secretary of the New York Symphony societies. Among the 
many charitable institutions with which he is identified are the 
Seaside Home on Long Island, of which he is president, and 
the Varick Street Hospital, of whose executive committee he 
is a member. 

Mr. Delafield was married, in 1880, to Miss Clara Foster Carey 
of New York, whose family is one of the oldest in the city. Her 
great-vmcle was Phihp Hone, Mayor of New York in 1826. Dr. 
Kane, the arctic explorer was also a relative. 




CHAUNCEY I^nTCHELL DEPEW 

IT is probable that if at almost any time in the last twenty 
years the question has been asked who was the best- 
known and most popular citizen of New York, or indeed of the 
United States, a large plurality of replies, given both here and in 
foreign lands, would have been, " Chauncey M. Depew." Nor 
would the selection have been in any respect an unworthy one. 
In business and in pohtics, in pubhc and in private, in society 
and in philanthropy, — indeed, in all honorable activities of human 
life, — Mr. Depew has come into contact with the American public 
to a greater extent than almost any other man of the age, and 
above most Americans of this or any generation is fairly entitled 
to the distinction of being regarded as a representative American 
and as a citizen of the world. 

Chauncey Mitchell Depew was bom at Peekskill, New York, 
on April 23, 1834, the son of Isaac and Martha (Mitchell) Depew. 
His father was of Huguenot origin, descended from a family 
which had settled at New RocheUe two centuries ago, and was 
himself a man of remarkable physical prowess, mental force, and 
spu'itual illumination. He owned country stores, farms, and 
vessels on the Hudson. Martha Mitchell, Mr. Depew's mother, 
was of English Puritan ancestry, a member of the distinguished 
New England family which produced Roger Sherman, William 
T. Sherman, John Shennan, William M. Evarts, and George P. 
Hoar; a woman of grace and kindliness, who exerted a strong and 
enduring influence upon the character of her gifted son. The 
boy was educated at Peekskill Academy and at Yale College, and 
was gi-aduated from the latter in 1856. Then he studied law at 
Peekskill in the office of William Nelson, and was admitted to 
the bar in 1858. 

108 



CHAUNCEY MITCHELL DEPEW 109 

In the year of his graduation from Yale Mr. Depew cast his 
first vote. It was for John C. Fremont, the Repubhoan candi- 
date for President of the United States. Two years later he 
was a delegate to the Repubhcan State Convention. In 1860 he 
was a stump speaker in behalf of Abraham Lincoln. His first 
public office came to him in 18G1, when he was elected to the 
State Assembly. He was reelected in 1862, and was Speaker pro 
tern, for a part of the term. In 1864 he was nominated by the 
Republicans for Secretary of State of the State of New York, and 
was elected by a majority of thirty thousand. In this campaign 
he estabhshed his place as one of the most effective popular ora- 
tors of the time. At the end of his term he declined a renomiua- 
tion, and, after holding the commission of United States minister 
to Japan, given to him by President Johnson, for a few months, 
he retu"ed fi-om politics. 

Mr. Depew had already attracted the attention of Commodore 
Vanderbilt and his son, William H. Vanderbilt. He was ap- 
pointed by them, in 1866, attorney for the New York and Harlem 
Railroad Company. Three years later he became attorney for 
the New York Central and Hudson River Raiboad, and afterward 
a director of that company. His influence grew with the growth 
of the Vanderbilt system of railroads, and in 1875 he became gen- 
eral counsel for the entu-e system, and was elected a director in 
each of the hues comprised in it. 

Mr. Depew was a candidate for Lieutenant-Governor on the 
Liberal Republican ticket in 1872, and shared the defeat of his 
ticket. In 1871 he was chosen Regent of the State University, 
and one of the commissioners to build the Capitol at Albany. He 
naiTOwly missed election as United States Senator in 1881, and 
declined, in 1885, to be a candidate for the same office. 

His influence in railroad circles had been constantly increasing 
meanwhile, and in 1882, when William H. Vanderbilt retired 
from the presidency of the New York Central, INIi". Depew was 
elected second vice-president, succeeding James H. Rutter in the 
presidency three years later, holding that place until 1898, when 
he succeeded Cornelius Vanderbilt as chairman of the board of 
directors of the entire Vanderbilt system of railroads. 

IVIr. Depew was a candidate for the Presidential nomination at 
the National Republican Convention of 1888, and received the 



110 CHAUNCEY MITCHELL DEPEW 

solid vote of the State of New York, and on one ballot ninety- 
nine votes. At the National Republican Convention of 1892 Mr, 
Depew was selected to present the name of President Harrison, 
In January, 1899, Mr. Depew was elected a United States Senator 
from the State of New York, His appearance at Washington 
commanded much personal interest, and he soon won recognition 
as a Senatorial orator. 

Mj", Depew is still Regent of the University of the State of New 
York, an active member of the St. Nicholas Society, the Holland 
Society, the Huguenot Society, and the New York Chamber of 
Commerce ; a director of the Wagner Palace Car Company, the 
Union Trust Company, the Western Union Telegraph Company, 
the Equitable Life Assurance Society, St. Luke's Hospital, the 
Niagara Bridge Company, the American Safe Deposit Company, 
the New York Mutual Gras Light Company, and of other indus- 
trial companies and coi-porations too numerous to mention. He 
was for seven years president of the Union League Club, and on 
retiring was elected an honorary hfe member. For ten years in 
succession he was elected president of the Yale Alumni Associa- 
tion, and he is now president of the Republican Club. 

Mr. Depew married Elise Hegeman on November 9, 1871, and 
has one child, a son, Chauncey M. Depew, Jr. Mrs. Depew died 
on May 7, 1893. 

Mr. Depew has long been known as foremost among the hu- 
morous and ready public speakers of the time, and there are none 
New-Yorkers love better to hear. He has been the orator on 
three great national and international occasions — the unveihng 
of the Statue of Liberty in New York harbor, the centennial 
celebration of the inaugui-ation of the first President of the United 
States, and the opening of the World's Fair at Chicago. He was 
selected by the Legislature to deliver the oration at the centen- 
nial celebration of the formation of the Constitution of the State 
of New York, the centennial of the organization of the Legis- 
lature of the State of New York, and the services held in New 
York in memory of President Garfield, Greneral Sherman, Gen- 
eral Husted, and Governor Fenton. He also delivered the ora- 
tions at the unveihng of the statues of Alexander Hamilton in 
Central Park, of Columbus in Central Park, and of Major Andre 
in Sleepy Hollow. 




^ 



?L. .oC.^^r PZ^ 



THEODORE LOW DE VINNE 



THE " art preservative of arts " has had many worthy pro- 
fessors and practitioners, from Gutenberg, Caxton, and 
Aldus down to the present day, but none more earnest and effec- 
tive than the head of the well-known De Vinne Press of New 
York. He is of New England birth and Huguenot-Dutch and 
French-Irish parentage, and has served, as a true workman should, 
in all grades of his profession, fi-om the lowest to the highest. 
His father, Daniel De Vinne, was born at Londonderry, Ireland, 
of French and Irish parentage, but was brought to this country 
in infancy, and had a long and useful career as a Methodist 
preacher and an antislavery advocate. His mother was Joanna 
Augusta Low of New York, of Huguenot and Dutch descent. 

Theodore Low De Vinne was born at Stamford, Connecticut, 
on December 25, 1828. He was educated at the common schools 
in the various towns in which his father was stationed in the 
Methodist itinerancy, and finally at Amenia Seminary, Amenia, 
New York, which he left at the age of fourteen, to begin work. 
His first work was in a printing-office at Fishkill, New York, 
and then, in 18-14, in the office of the " Newburg (New York) Ga- 
zette." In 1819 he came to this city and entered the employ of 
Francis Hart, one of the best printers of that day. Eight years 
later he became a partner in the establishment, and on the death 
of Mr. Hart, in 1877, he became the practical head of the firm. 
In 1883 the firm changed its name to that of T. L. De Vinne & Co., 
and is now best known as the De Vinne Press. 

From the beginning of his career as a managing printer, Mr. 
De Vinne has persistently and intelligently striven to improve the 
appearance of books and to elevate the general character of 
American typography. In this he has achieved marked success. 

Ill 



112 THEODORE LOW DE VINNE 

For years Ms piiblicatioBS have ranked at the head of American 
X^ress work, and the peer of any in the world, and orders have 
come to him from all parts of this and other countries from those 
who wish their books to be printed in the highest style of art. 
His influence has also extended outside of his own office, and 
has strongly tended to improve the general art of printing in 
America and throughout the world. He has been the printer of 
the " St. Nicholas Magazine " since it was started in 1873, and of 
the "Century Magazine" since 1874. The "Century Dictionary," 
one of the largest works ever undertaken by a printing-office, 
was brought out by him. In 1886 he removed his establishment 
to a fine building in Lafayette Place, specially designed by him 
as a model piinting-office. 

Mr. De Vinne is a prominent member of the National Typo- 
thet», of which he was the first president. He belongs also to 
the Grrolier, Authors', and Century clubs, and the Aldine Asso- 
ciation. He has been a writer as well as a printer of books, and, 
in addition to magazine articles, has put forth " The Printer's 
Price List " (1871), " The Invention of Printing " (1875), " Historic 
Types" (1886), "The Practice of Typography: Plain Printing 
Types " (1900), and other works. 

He was married, in 1850, to Miss Grace Brockbank, and has 
one son, Theodore Brockbank De Vinne, who is associated with 
him in the management of the De Vinne Press. Mr. De Vinne 
has taken no part in politics other than that of an intelligent 
private citizen, and has formed no important business connections 
outside of his own office. He has been content to devote his fife 
to the one great work of bringing the illustration, printing, and 
publishing of books to the highest possible perfection, and in 
that he has succeeded beyond the achievements of most of Ms 
predecessors in this or any land. 








A.^ 



^t^c^t^ 



c 



FREDERICK WILLIAM DEVOE 



I FREDERICK WILLIAM DEVOE, the well-known manu- 
facturer and merchant, comes of a family of distinguished 
record which in ancient times was resident in the district of 
Veaux, in Normandy, and which has variously been known as 
De Veaux, Dtt Vaujx, De Veau, and De Vos. Its first member in 
this countiy was Matheus de Vos, a Huguenot, who came to 
New Amsterdam, now New York, for refuge and freedom. Later 
came Daniel and Nicholas de Vaux, and settled m Harlem, on 
Manhattan Island. Finally Frederick, the brother of these lat- 
ter, a native of Annis, France, escaped massacre by flight from 
home, grew to manhood at Mannheim, Grermany, became a mer- 
chant, and came to New York. He too settled in Harlem, man-ied 
Hester Terneur, owned the great Cromwell farm near what is now 
Central Bridge, and was a man of much note in the community. 

He had a son named Frederick, who also had a son of that 
name, who had a son named John. The last-named married his 
cousin Rebecca de Voe, and had eleven childi-en. One of these, 
John, served in the War of 1812, married Sophia, daughter of 
Thomas Farrington of Yonkers, and had ten children, of whom 
the youngest is the subject of this sketch. 

Frederick WiUiam Devoe was born in New York city on Jan- 
uary 26, 1828, and was educated in private schools. In 1843 he 
became a clerk in the store of his brother Isaac, at Spotswood, 
New Jersey. Three years later he returned to New York and 
entered the drug and paint establishment of Jackson and Robins, 
in which his brother John was a junior partner. In 1848 he 
became clerk for Butler and Raynolds, and ioxir years later imder- 
took business on his own account as a member of the new firm 
of Raynolds and Devoe. 



113 



114 FREDEKICK WILLIAM DEVOE 

The firm was reorganized, in 1864, under the name of F. W. 
Devoe & Co., a name which became, through many years, one of 
the landmarks of the oil and paint trade in the United States 
and, indeed, in the world. Apart from the great business of this 
firm in oils, paints, and artists' materials, Mr. Devoe for some 
years did a large business in the refining and sale of petroleum, 
under the name of " Devoe's Brilliant Oil." This enterprise was 
afterward carried on under the name of the Devoe Manufacturing 
Company, and then, in 1873, was sold to other parties. In 1890 
the F. W. Devoe Company was incorporated, with Mr. Devoe as 
president, as the successor of the firm of F. W. Devoe & Co., and 
in 1892 it was consolidated with the important house of C. T. 
Rajmolds & Co., imder the present name of the F. W. Devoe and 
C. T. Raynolds Company. The corporation still occupies the 
large building at the corner of Fulton and Wilham streets, New 
York, which F. W. Devoe & Co. made the center of the American 
paint trade. 

Mr. Devoe has cared little for politics. He has, however, 
served the public in variovis offices. In 1880, Mayor Cooper 
appointed him a member of the Board of Education, and he was 
reappointed by Mayors Edson, Hewitt, and Grant. He resigned 
in 1891. While in the board he exerted a most beneficent 
influence upon educational affairs, and did much for the estabhsh- 
ment of the valuable industrial school system. Governor Hill 
appointed Mr. Devoe a trustee of the Middletown Asylum for 
the Insane in 1890. Mr. Devoe is also a tmstee of the New 
York Homeopathic Medical College and Hospital. He became a 
director of the New York Juvenile Asylum in 1890, vice-president 
in 1893, and is now its president. 

Mr. Devoe was married, in 1853, to Sarah M., daughter of Wal- 
ter Briggs, who has borne him five children. Of these a son and 
two daughters died in childhood. The other two, daughters, are 
living. The family home is a charming place on Jerome Avenue, 
in the borough of the Bronx. 

Mr. Devoe has always preferred home life to club life. He is, 
however, a member of the Holland and St. Nicholas societies, 
and of the New York Microscopical Society, and he is a warden 
of the Protestant Episcopal Church of Zion and St. Timothy, 





J/ CvCcyT/^^^^ty^'^^'t^y.'^^ 



WATSON BRADLEY DICKERMAN 



^T^ATSON BRADLEY DICKERMAN has every claim to 

T T the title of an American citizen, his ancestors in direct 
line and in all collateral branches having settled in New Eng- 
land prior to 1660. His father, Ezra Dickerman, was a hueal 
descendant of Abram Dickerman of New Haven, who was a 
deputy to the Connecticut General Assembly from 1683 to 1696. 
His son Isaac was also a deputy to the Assembly for a long 
term of years — from 1718 to 1757. Mr. Dickermau's mother was 
Sarah Jones, a daughter of Nicholas Jones of Wallingford, Con- 
necticut, and was descended from Wilham Jones of New Haven, 
Deputy Grovernor of Connecticut in 1660. 

Watson B. Dickerman was bom at Mount Carmel, Connecti- 
cut, on January 4, 1846. His early hfe was spent on his father's 
farm, and he was educated at the Williston Academy, East- 
hampton, Massachusetts. 

At the age of seventeen years he went West, and in 1864 be- 
gan his business life as a clerk in J. Bunn's Bank at Spriugfield, 
Illinois. BeUeving that the metropohs offered the largest 
chances of success, even while accompanied with the greatest 
hazards, he returned to New York in 1867, and engaged in the 
brokerage business. In November, 1868, he was admitted to 
membership in the Stock Exchange. In June, 1870, he formed 
a partnership with William Grayer Domiuick, under the name 
of Dominick & Dickerman. In 1899 he became associated with 
the firm of Moore & Schley. 

William Grayer Dominick died suddenly, on August 31, 1895, 
at the age of fifty. He belonged to an old New York family, 
and was a man of distinction in the business and social world. 
He served seventeen years in the Seventh Regiment, including 



115 



116 WATSON BKADLEY DICKEKMAN 

ten years as a first lieutenant. He was captain of the Ninth 
Company of the Veteran Association, and a governor of the 
Seventh Regiment Veteran Chib. In 1892 he, with his brothers, 
presented to the MetropoHtan Museum of Art the fine picture 
l)y Schrader, " Queen Elizabeth Signing the Death- Warrant of 
Mary Stuart," in acknowledgment of which a life membership 
of the museum was bestowed upon him. 

Mr. Dickerman's reputation for business sagacity, and his well- 
known integrity, added to other attractive quahtics of mind 
and heart, led to his election, in 1890, as president of the New 
York Stock Exchange, and his admirable administration of that 
important office assured him an easy reelection in the following 
year. 

He has taken a lifelong interest in politics as an intelligent 
and loyal American citizen, and has been consistently affiUated 
with the Repubhcan party, to the success of which in its cam- 
paigns he has often materially contributed. He has, however, 
never been an office-seeker, and, indeed, has never accepted 
nomination to any public office. 

He is connected officially with a number of large business 
corporations in various parts of the country. Among these may 
be mentioned the Norfolk and Southern Railroad Company, of 
which he is president, and the Long Island Loan and Tnist 
Company, of which he is a trustee. 

Mr. Dickerman belongs to several of the best clubs of the me- 
tropolis, their character well reflecting his tastes and incUnations 
in social matters. Among these are the Century Association, 
with its distinctively hterary and artistic flavor; the Union League 
Club, the stronghold of Repubhcanism ; the Metropohtan, a 
purely social organization ; and the Westchester Country Club, 
with its fine mingling of social and spoi-tsmanlike qualities. 

He was married, on Febiniary 18, 1869, to Miss Martha Eliza- 
beth Swift, a daughter of Samuel and Mary Phelps Swift of 
New York. His only son died in infancy in 1873. Mr. and Mrs. 
Dickerman made their residence in Brooklyn imtil 1885, and m 
June of that year removed to Mamaroneck, New York, where 
they have a beautiful country place, Hillanddale Farm, which 
has been their home ever since. 



EDWARD NICOLL DICKERSON 



THE ancestors of Edward N. Diekerson came from Eng- 
land in 1630, and settled at Southold, in the eastern part 
of Long Island. They afterward removed to New Jersey, near 
Morristown, where they became prominent and useful citizens. 
His grandfather, Philemon Diekerson, served one term as Gov- 
ernor of New Jersey, and was a United States district judge. 
Mahlon Diekerson, district judge of New Jersey and Secretary 
of the Navy under President Jackson, was his great-uncle. Mr. 
Diekerson is a son of Edward Nicoll Diekerson, a patent lawyer, 
and Mary Carohne Nystrom, and was born at Newport, Rhode 
Island, on May 23, 1853. 

He was prepared for college at the historic St. Paul's School, 
Concord, New Hampshire, and matriculated at Trinity College, 
from which latter institution he was graduated with honors in 
1874, the valedictorian of a large class. From Trinity he passed 
to the Law School of Cohimbia College, and from there to his 
father's ofB.ce, where his legal studies were completed, he after- 
ward becoming a member of the firm. 

Mr. Diekerson is at present at the head of the firm of Dicker- 
son & Brown. He is counsel for many important corporations, 
among which are the Bell Telephone Company, the Western 
Union Telegraph, the Greneral Electric, the Barber Asphalt 
Paving Company, the Farben Fabriken, and others. He is 
ofl&ciaUy connected with several other large coiporations, such 
as the Electro Gas Company, the Union Carbide Company, the 
Pressed Steel Car Company, and the American Car and Foundry 
Company. 

Mr. Diekerson is a member of the Manhattan, the Lawyers', 
the Tuxedo, the St. Nicholas, the New York Yacht, the New 



117 



118 EDWABD NICOLL DICKERSON 

York Riding, the Fencers', and the Rockaway Hunt clubs, the 
Metropolitan Club of "Washington, the Order of the Cincinnati, 
the St. Nicholas Society, the Sons of the Revolution, and the 
Psi Upsilon Fraternity. 

He was married, on January 5, 1898, to Miss Charlotte Surget 
Ogden, at Bartow, on the Sound, New York. Their infant 
daughter's name is Lilhan Louise. 

Mr. Dickerson is possessed of a striking personality, to which 
are due, in large measure, the successes he has achieved. He is 
gifted with a clear, strong mind, great energy and industry, and 
a wonderful versatility. He is an expert chemist, and as good 
a machinist and electrician as most men who make those things 
a profession. 

He is an all-around sportsman, and can manage a yacht, ride, 
and drive a four-in-hand with equal skill. In the practice of his 
profession he has the reputation of drawing the most doubtful 
case up to the fighting-point, and his pleadings are distin- 
guished for their lucidity and power. He well exemplifies the 
advantages of hberal education of the most ample scope and 
thoroughness in the prosecution of business or professional 
duties. He is equally at home in the discussion of a point of 
law, or a question of chemistry, electrical science, or higher 
mathematics. It is, indeed, largely because of such complete 
intellectual equipment that he has been so successful in the 
practice of his profession. He has not had to depend upon the 
assistance of experts in preparing and conducting his cases, but 
has been his own expert, and has displayed the exceptional 
faculty of deaUng with the most abstruse case in a manner con- 
vincing to the scientific mind, and at the same time perfectly 
lucid to the average unskilled layman. A like thoroughness and 
masterfulness in all the activities of life have made him an ex- 
ceptionally forceful figure in all relationships and associations. 




JAMES B. DILL 



PROBABLY the most iinpoi-tant phase of the economic de- 
velopment of the United States during the last few years 
has been the movement for the consolidation of the manufac- 
turing and mercantile firms and companies into large corpora- 
tions, and with that movement no one has been more promi- 
nently identified than James B. Dill of New York, whose repu- 
tation as an authority on corporation law is more than national. 
Mr. Dill is still in early middle hfe, having been born on July 24, 
1854, at Spencerport, near Rochester, New York. He is of New 
England descent on both sides, his father, the Rev. James H. 
Dill, having been a native of Massachusetts, and his mother, 
Catharine Brooks Dill, a member of the well-known Brooks 
family of Connecticut. In 1859 the Rev. Mr. Dill removed, 
with his family, from western New York to Chicago, where he 
was installed as pastor of the South Congregational Church. 
When the Civil War broke out he went to the front as chaplain 
of the famous "• IlUnois Railroad Regiment." The exposui'e and 
privation incident to active campaigning resulted in his death, 
in 1862. In 1868 the boy entered the preparatory depai"tment 
of Oberlin College, and four years later was admitted to Yale, 
among his classmates being Arthur T. Hadley, now president 
of the university. Upon his gi'aduation from college in 1876, 
young Dill took up the study of the law, reading in an office for 
one year to such good purpose that at the end of that period he 
was enabled to enter the New York University Law School as a 
member of the senior class. He was graduated in 1878 from the 
law school, being salutatorian of his class, although coincidently 
with his attendance at the law lectures he had been engaged in 
teaching at Stevens Institute. 



119 



120 JAMES B. DILL 

The first case of importance in which he was engaged was 
connected with the failure of the commercial agency of McKillop 
& Sprague. The directors of this corporation had neglected to 
file certain statements required by law, and were therefore held 
to be personally liable for its debts. This responsibihty they 
disputed in court, but were beaten — or all but one of them. 
That one had retained Mr. Dill as counsel, and he won the case 
on a novel point of law. That was the beginning of Mr. Dill's 
career as a corporation lawyer. 

The opening of the era of industrial consohdation, two or 
three years ago, found the corporation laws of New Jersey at 
once the most flexible and the most equitable to be discovered 
on the statute-books of any State, and the projectors of the 
giant industrial combinations of to-day turned to New Jersey as 
the State in which to incorporate their new companies. The 
beginning of this period also found one lawyer preeminently well 
versed in the intricacies of New Jersey corporation law and cor- 
poration practice — Mr. Dill. 

As a natural result Mr. Dill was concerned in the incorporation 
of a large number of the more important consolidations, either 
drawing up the charters himself, or, as consulting counsel, pass- 
ing upon the work of other attorneys. Among the host of com- 
panies the incoi-poration of which he has effected, and of which 
he is a director as well as counsel, are the National Steel Com- 
pany, the American Tin Plate Company, and, latest and greatest, 
the Carnegie Company, with its unwatered stock and bond issue 
of three himdred and twenty miUion dollars. The incorporation 
of the Carnegie Company represented probably the most pro- 
nounced success of Mr. Dill's professional life, for it became 
possible only as the result of the adjustment of the differences 
between Andrew Carnegie and Henry C. Frick, the suspension of 
the litigation begun by the latter, and the ascertainment of a 
basis on which the two men and their respective associates in 
the old Carnegie Steel Company should enter the new Carnegie 
Company, in the negotiations on all of which matters Mr. Dill 
took an active part, receiving for his services a fee said to have 
been the largest ever paid to an American lawyer. 

'Ml'. Dill was chah'man, a year or two ago, of a State com- 
mission which revised the laM'-s of New Jersey relating to banks, 



JAMES B. DILL 121 

trust companies, and safe-deposit companies ; he is a director of 
the North American Trust Company of New York, and of the 
People's Bank of Orange, New Jersey, vice-president of the 
Savings Investment and Trust Company of East Orange, New 
Jersey, and chairman of the executive committee of the Corj.)ora- 
tiou Trust Company of New Jersey. He is also a director in 
more than thirty additional companies. He has been counsel for 
the Merchants' Association of New York since the organization 
of that active and influential body, and for twenty years has 
been counsel to the Loan Relief Association of the Fifth Avenue 
Presbyterian Church of New York city. 

Despite the drafts made upon his time and his strength by his 
corporation practice, Mr. Dill contrives to find opportunity for 
work on collateral lines also. "Dill on New Jersey Coi-pora- 
tions," of which book he is the author, is the standard authority 
upon the subject. 

The Financial Laws of New Jersey are in part his handiwork, 
and he has also annotated and compiled for the State its banking 
laws and general corporation laws. Mr. Dill was one of the 
framers of the Coi"poration Act, prepared for New York upon the 
suggestion of Governor Roosevelt, the New York Business 
Companies Act of 1900, and early in 1900 was called upon by 
the government of Quebec to assist in framing a similar act for 
that Canadian province. He has also delivered addresses before 
economic and scientific bodies and at colleges on the subject of 
the so-called " trusts," pointing out in these addresses the dis- 
tinctions between the honest and dishonest " tmsts," and vu'ging 
compulsory publicity as to methods of operation as the most 
efficacious remedy for " trust evils," 

Mr. DiU married, in October, 1880, Miss Mary W. Hansell of 
Philadelphia, and has three daughters. Their home is at East 
Orange, New Jersey, and they also have a summer cottage at 
Hunting-ton, Long Island, and a camp in the Rangeley region in 
Maine. Mr. Dill is a member of the Lawyers' Club and the 
Merchants' Club of New York, president of the Orange Riding 
Club of Orange, New Jersey, and a member of the Essex County 
Countiy Club. The style of his law firm is Dill, Bomeisler & 
Baldwin, with offices at No. 27 Pine Street, New York. 



LOUIS R DOYLE 



THE lawyers of New York hold an important position among 
its influential men, not only by their work in the courts, but 
quite as much by their share in guiding great commercial and 
financial transactions. Louis F. Doyle has a recognized i^lace 
among the successful lawyers of his native city, and among its 
prominent men. 

Bom in the city of New York, on June 7, 1861, the son of 
James Doyle and his wife, Lucinda M. Loss, both also natives 
of the city, and the former long engaged in mercantile pursuits 
there, Louis F. Doyle, before he came of age, had chosen his 
career and entered himself as a student in the Law Department of 
the University of the City of New York. Before and during his 
course at the law school, he was also a student in the office of 
Douglass & Minton, a fii'm doing a large commercial business, 
and counsel for R. G. Dun & Co. of the weU-known mercantile 
agency. In this office Mr. Doyle not only had wide experience 
in the practice of law, but also laid the foundation of that prac- 
tical acquaintance with business which is so necessary to the 
modern lawyer. In 1882 Mr. Doyle was graduated fi"om the 
university with the degree of Bachelor of Laws. After contin- 
uing for about three years in the office of Douglass & Minton, he 
opened an office of his own, at 317 Broadway, and began practice 
independently. In 1889 he removed to the New York Times 
Building, where he now has one of the best-eqioipped offices in 
the city. From the beginning of his practice, Mr. Doyle has 
given his attention chiefly to the law of banking and commerce. 
Since 1885 he has acted as an attorney for the National Park 
Bank of New York, and for several years past he has been the 
general attorney and counsel of that bank. Among the impor- 



122 








(y-c^c<^ 




LOUIS F. DOYLE 



123 



tant cases, involviBg new and doubtful points of commercial law, 
in which he has been engaged, are those of Harmon vs. the 
National Park Bank, reported in the 79th Federal Reporter 891 
and in 172 United States Supreme Com't Reports 644 ; the Clin- 
ton National Bank vs. the National Park Bank, reported in 37 
Appellate Division Reports 601 ; Washington Savings Bank vs. 
Ferguson, reported in 43 Appellate Division Reports 74 ; and the 
litigation over the affairs of the Domestic Sewing Machine Com- 
pany, which was finally disposed of by the decision of the New 
Jersey Court of Errors and Appeals, reported as Blake vs. Domes- 
tic Manufacturing Company in 38 Atlantic Reporter 241. 

Mr. Doyle has always taken an earnest and practical interest 
in politics as a Democrat and a member of the local political 
organization, but he has never been an office-seeker and has held 
no public office. He is a member of the Manhattan and Demo- 
cratic clubs, of the American, New York State and New York 
city bar associations, and, among purely social organizations, 
of the Metropolitan, New York Athletic, and Suburban Riding 
and Driving clul)s. He is unmarried and hves alone in apart- 
ments at Fifth Avenue and Forty-third Street, his only near 
relative being a sister, the wife of Colonel John M. Carter, Jr., 
of the Baltimore " News." 




SILAS BELDEN BUTCHER 



THE Butcher family in New York is descended from Ruloff 
Butcher and his wife Jannettie Brussy, who came to this 
country from Holland early in the seventeenth century. Their 
son Gabriel married Ehzabeth Knickerbocker, a granddaughter 
of Harman Janse van Wye Knickerbocker of Butchess County, 
New York. They were the great-grandparents of Silas B. 
Butcher. Mr. Butchei-'s parents were Parcefor Carr Butcher 
and Johanna Low Fi-inck. The latter was a daughter of Stephen 
and Ann Low Frinck. She was descended fi'om Cornelius Janse 
Vanderveer, who came from Alkmaan, HoUand, in the ship 
Otter, in 1659, and settled in Flatbush, Long Island, and also 
from Conrad Ten Eyck, who came from Amsterdam in 1650, and 
was the owner of what is now known as Coenties Shp, New York 
city. Her grandfather, Captain Peter Low, was an officer in 
the Continental Army. 

Silas Belden Butcher was bom in Springfield, Otsego County, 
New York, on July 12, 1829. He attended the pubhc schools of 
his native town, and for a short time the Cazeuovia Academy. 
From sixteen to twenty-two he taught school during the winter 
months, working on his father's farm in the summers. From 
1851 to 1855 he was employed in the building and operation of 
the railroad i-unning between Elmira and Niagara Falls. 

In 1855 he came to New York and for some years was engaged 
in a mercantile business. In 1859 he became a charter trustee 
of the Union Bime Savings Institution, of which he was presi- 
dent from 1886 until 1891, and with which he is still connected. 
He is president of the Hamilton Trust Company and of the 
Ramapo Water Company, treasurer of the Columbia Mutual 
Building and Loan Association, a director of the Garfield Safe 



134 




<///. /^htyti^iiiz^rn 



SILAS BELDEN DUTCHER 125 

Deposit, the Kings County Electric Light and Power, the Nassau 
Electric Railway, the Glerman- American Real Estate Title Guar- 
anty, and the Metropolitan Life Insurance companies. The 
last-named trusteeship he has held for over twenty years. 

Since his early manhood Mr. Butcher has been a prominent 
figure in the pohtical world. Originally a Wliig, he has been a 
Republican since the organization of the party, has given his 
services as a speaker in nearly every Presidential campaign until 
1888, and has been a delegate to several national conventions. 
In 1858-59 he was president of the Young Men's Republican 
Committee of New York city, and in the following year was 
president of the Wide-Awake Organization of New York. He 
removed to Brooklyn in 1861, and for four years was president 
of the Kings County Republican Committee. He was chairman 
of the RepubUcau Executive Committee in 1876, and was for 
many years a member of the Republican State Committee. 

He has held a number of important State and United States 
offices, among them those of supervisor of internal revenue, 
United States pension agent. United States appraiser of the port 
of New York, superintendent of public works for the State of 
New York, and manager of the Long Island State Hospital. 
Mr. Dutcher was one of the earliest and most ardent advocates 
of the idea of consolidating the different boroughs which now 
form the city of New York, and did much to effect the consumma- 
tion of the plan. In recognition of his services. Governor Morton 
appointed him one of the commission which framed the charter 
for Greater New York. 

Mr. Dutcher was married, on February 19, 1859, to Rebecca J. 
Alwaise, a descendant of French Huguenots who came to 
Philadelphia in 1740. They have six children. Their home is 
in BrookljTi, where Mr. Dutcher is a member of several well- 
known clubs of the Masonic fraternity, and of many charitable 
and benevolent societies. 



AMOS RICHARDS ENO 



THE name of Euo is often met with in early American his- 
tory, always in some worthy connection. Its first owners 
in this country settled at Simsbury, Connecticut, about 1635, hav- 
iag come from England and spent five years at Dorchester, 
Massachusetts. They soon came into prominence through their 
unsuccessful efforts to resist unjust taxation. They became 
owners of much land at and around Simsbmy, and some of it 
remains in the possession of the family to this day. The late 
Amos R. Eno had his summer home there, on land that had 
belonged to his ancestors for more than two hundred and fifty 
years. Several members of the family rendered distinguished 
services ia the colonial and Revolutionary wars. One of them 
married a daughter of Ethan Allen. 

Amos Richards Eno was born at Simsbury on November 1, 
1810. He was educated at the local school, and at an early age 
set out to make his own way in the world. He was for a time 
a clerk in a dry-goods store at Hartford, among his friends and 
fellow-clerks at that time being E. D. Morgan, afterward Gov- 
ernor of New York, and Junius S. Morgan, the banker. In the 
spriag of 1833 he was able to estabUsh himself in the wholesale 
dry-goods trade in New York, soon after taking his cousin, John 
J. Phelps, into partnership with him. The firm of Eno & 
Phelps was thereafter for years one of the foremost in the city, 
and second to none iti reputation for integrity. The firm was 
dissolved in 1850. 

Mr. Eno then began investments in real estate on a large scale. 
In 1854 he bought land at Fifth Avenue and Twenty -thu*d Street 
and built the Fifth Avenue Hotel. This was regarded at the time 
as a mad undertaking, and the hotel was dubbed " Eno's Folly." 



126 



AMOS KICHAKDS ENO 127 

But it soon became, what it has ever since been, one of the best- 
paying hotels in the world. Mr. Eno purchased various plots 
of ground on Broadway, Fifth Avenue, the Boulevard, and else- 
where, all of wliieh investments proved profitable. He lived to 
see much of his property increase in value a hundi'edfold. 

Nor did real estate monopolize his attention. He made in- 
vestments in many other directions, with unfailing success. 
Among his enterprises was the foimding of the Second Na- 
tional Bank of this city, an institution that became so profit- 
able that in a few years it repaid all its original capital to its 
stock-holders in a single dividend. In later years Mr. Eno's son, 
John C. Eno, became president of this bank. In May, 1884, it 
was found that he had used its funds for private speculations, 
and the bank was insolvent. Almost heartbroken over his son's 
conduct, Mr. Eno rose to the occasion with the splendid integ- 
rity that had distinguished him all his Hfe, At a cost to him- 
self of nearly four million dollars, he paid aU obligations of the 
bank in full and kept its doors open. 

From this blow, however, Mr. Eno never recovered. He was 
then an old man, — his wife, a daughter of Elisha Phelps of 
Simsbury, had died in 1882, — and his health now began to de- 
cline. He devoted himself to the study of Latin, French, and 
Itahan, mastei-ing those languages and reading then- best Htera- 
tiire at an age when most men who survive to it are becoming 
senile. Finally, on Febnmry 21, 1898, he died peacefully at his 
New York home. He left six children : Amos F. Eno, John C. 
Eno, Dr. Hemy C. Eno, and William Phelps Eno, of this city, 
and Mrs. James W. Pinchot and Mrs. Wood. He left, too, a 
name second to no other in the history of the metropolis for 
business foresight and ability, and for unfailing and unswerving 
integrity and honor. 




Qp\^ 




JOHN H. FLAGLER 



THE name of Flagler has long been conspicuously identified 
with leading financial, industrial, and commercial interests 
in the city of New York and elsewhere, and is borne by more than 
one man who has, through the force of personal ability and worth, 
made his way from the comparatively quiet walks of life to the 
command of vast enterprises. Of these none is better known 
or has achieved more positive success than John H. Flagler, the 
subject of the present sketch. 

Mr. Flagler is a native of the Empire State, which has been 
the scene of a large share of his business activities, having been 
bom at Cold Spring, on the Hudson River, about the middle of 
the century. He received a good practical education, and then, 
at an early age, devoted himself to business pursuits. For these, 
in more than one department of activity and enterprise, he has 
exhibited an exceptional aptitude, and in them has attained an 
exceptional measure of success. 

Reference is made to business pursuits in the plural advisedly, 
for Mr. Flagler has mastered the art of keeping a number of irons 
in the fii'e without letting any of them get burned. He has long 
been, and is to-day, associated with a large number of enterprises 
of different kinds. He is able to devote a due amount of atten- 
tion to each and all, and to make himself felt as a guiding force 
in each. 

Among the most important of Mr. Flagler's business under- 
takings is that of the National Tube Works Company. He was 
the founder and organizer of that great corporation, and has been 
identified with every step of its development. In that capacity 
he well earned the title of a " captain of industry." Another 
manufacturing enterprise with which he is identified, deaUng 



128 



JOHN H. FLAGLER 129 

with one of the newest products of American ingenuity, and 
having almost inestimable promise of future development, is the 
Automobile Company of America. This corporation, of which 
Mr. Flagler is president, is taking a foremost part in perfecting 
horseless vehicles of various types, and in supplying the rapidly 
increasing demand for them. To what extent the world is enter- 
ing upon a " horseless age " remains yet to be seen. Certain it is 
that various forms of mechanical propulsion and traction have 
already taken the place of horse-power, not only on fixed railroad 
tracks, but for general use on all roads. The practicabiHty and 
success of some of these seem now to be well established, and in 
their future extension Mr. Flagler and the corporation of which 
he is the president and guiding spmt will doubtless maintain a 
leading place. 

In addition to these manufacturing enterprises, Mr. Flagler is 
actively interested in matters of pure finance, especially as a 
director of the National Bank of North America, one of the best- 
known institutions of the kind in New York. His interest and 
participation in the great business of fii'e and life insurance are 
attested by his being a director of the National Standard Insur- 
ance Company, the Assurance Company of America, and the 
American Union Life Insurance Company. He is also a dii'ector 
of the Crocker- Wheeler Company and of the National Mercantile 
Agency Company. 

Mr. Flagler has not put himself forward in political matters 
beyond the worthy rank of a private citizen. In clubs and other 
social organizations he is well known, being a member of a num- 
ber of the best of them in New York city and elsewhere. Among 
those to which he belongs are the Lotus, the Lawyers', the 
Democratic, the American Yacht, the New York Yacht, and 
some other clubs of New York city, the Lake Hopatcong Club of 
New Jersey, the Suburban Riding and Driving Club, the Scars- 
dale GoK Club of Scarsdale, New York, the Metropolitan Museum 
of Art, the American Museum of Natural History, and the New 
York Grenealogical and Biographical Society. 



CHARLES RANLETT FLINT 



IN the year 1642 Thomas Fhnt, an emigrant from Wales, ar- 
rived in Salem, Massachusetts, and settled in that part of the 
township which is now South Danvers. One of his numerous 
descendants was Benjamin Fhnt, a ship-owner of Thomaston, 
Maine, who in 1858 removed to New York city, where he be- 
came a successful merchant. His son, Charles Ranlett Fhnt, 
was born in Thomaston, Maine, on January 24, 1850. He was 
educated in the schools of his native town, and in those of 
Brooklyn, the family residence after their removal to New 
York, and was graduated from the Brooklyn Polytechnic In- 
stitute, president of his class and one of its brightest members. 

Electing a business career, Mr. Fhnt became, in 1872, one of 
the founders of the firm of W. R. Grace & Co. In 1874 
he made the first of his many visits to South America, and 
in 1876 he organized the fii-m of Crace Brothers & Co. of 
CaUao, Peru. Mr. Fhnt remained on the west coast of South 
America nearly a year, and upon his return to New York was 
appointed consul for the republic of Chile. In 1878 Mr. Fhnt 
organized the Export Lumber Company, Limited, now one of 
the most successful lumber concerns in the United States, with 
yards in Michigan, Ottawa, Montreal, Portland, Boston, and New 
York, and handhng over two million feet of lumber per year. 

In 1880 he was identified with electrical development, being 
elected president of the United States Electric Lighting Com- 
pany. He visited Brazil in 1884 and established a large rubber 
business on the river Amazon. Upon his return he was ap- 
pointed consul of Nicaragua at New York, and represented that 
country in negotiations which resulted in concessions being 



granted to Americans to build a canal. 

130 



He has also been in 



CHARLES RANLETT FLINT 131 

recent years consul-general of Costa Rica in this countiy. In 
1885 Mr. Flint retired from the firm of W. R. Grace & Co. 
and entered the well-known firm of Flint & Co., composed of 
his father, Benjamin Flint, and his brother, Wallace Benjamin 
Flint. This firm succeeded to the shipping business estabhshed 
by Benjamin Flint in 1840, and the lumber, rubber, and general 
commission business created by Charles R. Flint. During the 
winter of 1889-90 Mr. Flint was appointed a delegate of the 
United States to the International Conference of American 
Repubhcs, which was held in the city of Washington. His inti- 
mate knowledge of the South American continent enabled him 
to render important services as a member of that conference. 

Mr. Flint's financial ability has been conspicuously exhibited 
during the last few years by the consummation of several under- 
takings of great importance. In 1891 he united the manufacturers 
of rubber boots and shoes in this country into one large concern 
under the title of the United States Rubber Company, having a 
capital of forty million dollars, of which corporation he became the 
treasurer. In 1892 he brought about a union of five companies 
manufacturing rubber belting, packing, and hose, imder the title 
of the Mechanical Rubber Company, with a capital of fifteen 
million dollars, of which concern he is a dii'ector and chairman 
of the finance committee. 

A little later he was sent by the United States government on 
a confidential mission to Brazil to negotiate a reciprocity treaty. 
His relations with the Brazilian republic have been veiy close, 
and when the reestablishment of the empire was threatened Mr. 
Fhnt was empowered by the President, General Peixoto, to 
purchase vessels and munitions of war. Through his efforts 
Ericsson's Destroyer, the two converted yachts which became 
torpedo-boats, and the steamships made into the armed cruisers 
America and Nictheroy, were turned over to the Brazilian 
republic. Mr. Flint's generous services to the United States 
government in affairs relating to South America earned him 
the esteem and warm personal friendship of James G. Blaine 
and many other public men. In 1894—95 he brought about 
the consolidation of the export department of his firm with the 
Coombs, Crosby & Eddy Co., under the corporate name of 
FHnt, Eddy & Co., of whose board of directors he is chairman. 



132 CHARLES EANLETT FLINT 

In the summer of 1896, upon tlie death of Woodriiff Sutton, 
the firm of Flint & Co., which has continued in the general 
banking and shipping business, established the Fhnt & Com- 
pany Pacific Coast Clipper Line between New York and San 
Francisco. In 1899 Mr. FUnt brought about the consohdation 
of the chief rubber companies of the United States under the 
title of the Rubber Goods Manufactming Company, having a 
capital of fifty million dollars. He is the chairman of the 
executive committee and member of the board of directors. 

He is a director in the National Bank of the Repubhc, the 
Produce Exchange Bank, the Knickerbocker Trust and the 
State Trust companies. He is also treasm'er of the Hastings 
Pavement Company, the Manaos Electric Lighting Company, 
and the Manaos Railway Company, and was chairman of the 
reorganization committee which has recently consolidated the 
street railroads of Syi'acuse under the name of the Syracuse 
Rapid Transit Railway Company. He is one of the council of 
New York University, and is prominent in the club world, being 
a member of the Union, the Metropohtan, the Riding, and the 
South Side Sportsmen's clubs, the New England Society and 
the Century Association, and of the New York, Seawanhaka-Co- 
rinthian, and Larchmout yacht clubs. As a yachtsman Mr. Flint 
is well known as the sometime owner of the fast yacht Grade, and 
as a member of the syndicate which built and raced the Vigilant. 
He is an equally enthusiastic sportsman with rod and gun, and 
has shot big game in the mountains and wildernesses of both 
North and South America. 

He was mamed, in 1883, to Miss E. Kate Simmons, daughter 
of Joseph F. Simmons of Troy, New York. Mrs. Flint is a 
musician and a composer of gi'eat talent. 





K^ 





\ 



ROSWELL PETTIBONE FLOWER 



EX-GOVERNOR FLOWER, who for many years was one of 
the most foremost figm-es in the financial and pohtical 
world of the Empire State, and, indeed, in that of the whole 
Union, was remotely of Irish and French ancestry. The first of 
his name in this country was Lamrock Flower, who came from 
Ireland in 1685 and settled in Connecticut at Hartford. He had 
a son Lamrock, whose son Elijah moved to New Hartford, Con- 
necticut, and man'ied Abigail Seymour. Their son George was 
one of the founders of Oakhill, Greene County, New York, and 
he married Roxaline Crowe of New Hartford, Connecticut, whose 
ancestors had come from Alsace, France. Their son Nathan, 
born in 1796, married Mary Ann Bojde, daughter of Thomas 
Boyle, the builder of the first waterworks in New York city. 
Nathan and Mary Ann Flower lived at Theresa, Jefferson County, 
New York, where the former was justice of the peace for many 
years, and to them at that place, on August 7, 1835, was born 
the subject of this sketch. 

Roswell Pettibone Flower was left fatherless at the age of 
eight years. He was enabled, however, to acquire as good an 
education as the local schools could afford. Then he became a 
school-teacher himself, and engaged in various businesses. For 
a time he was a clerk in the post-office at Watertown, New York. 
Having amassed a small capital, he opened a jewelry store at 
Watertown, and conducted it with marked success. In the 
meantime he was a diligent student of law, history, and other 
branches of learning, fitting himself for the higher duties toward 
which his ambition tended. 

A change came to his affairs soon after his marriage in 1859. 
His bride was Miss Sarah M. Woodruff of Watertown, New 



133 



134 ROSWELL PETTIBONE PLOWEE 

York, a sister of the wife of Henry Keep, a leading New York 
capitalist. Through this connection Mr. Flower became inter- 
ested in finance, and on the death of Mr. Keep, in 1869, he be- 
came administrator of the large estate left by him. Accordingly 
he moved to New York city and entered upon the career of a 
banker and broker. His first firm was that of Benedict, FJower 
& Co., the next R. P. Flower & Co., and finally Flower & Co. 

The story of Mr. Flowei-'s financial career would be a story of 
Wall Street for all the years in which he was in New York. He 
was one of the most influential and most trusted men in New 
York finance, his activities including banking and brokerage, and 
railroads. 

Mr. Flower was an earnest Democrat, and in 1881 came con- 
spicuously before the public as a successful candidate for Con- 
gress from a New York city district, defeating William Waldorf 
Astor. The next year he was urged to become the Democratic 
candidate for Governor of New York, but declined in favor of 
Grrover Cleveland, with results of gi-eat moment to the whole 
nation. He also declined renomination for Congress and nomi- 
nation for the Lieutenant-Governorship. In 1888 he was, how- 
ever, I'eelected to Congress, and in 1891 he was elected Governor 
of New York State. 

Mr. Flower was an officer in many important railroad and 
other companies, and a prominent member of numerous clubs of 
the best class. He was a man of wide and discriminating 
charities, setting apart one tenth of his income for such purposes. 
He built the St. Thomas House in New York, a center of work 
among the poor, the Flower Hospital in New York, and the 
Presbyterian Church at Theresa, New York, as a memorial to his 
parents. With his brother, Anson R. Flower, he built Trinity 
Episcopal Church at Watertown, New York. Of his three 
children only one is living, Mrs. John B. Taylor of Watertown. 
Mr. Flower died on May 12, 1899, and was succeeded in the bulk 
of his business by his brother, Anson R. Flower. 








^^ 



CHARLES A. GARDINER 



CHARLES A. GARDINER was born in 1855, and is 
descended from a long line of distinguished Scotch ances- 
try. His father's family has been prominent in Scotland for 
many generations, and includes to-day large landowners and 
members of the Scottish aristocracy. His mother belongs to 
one of the oldest families in Glasgow, whose members have long 
been leaders in the commercial, professional, and pubhc life of 
that city. 

When thirteen years of age he entered the academy at Fort 
Covington, New York, and completed the academic course at 
seventeen. He then attended the Hungerford Collegiate Insti- 
tute at Adams, New York, and was graduated after a two years' 
course, winning the Hungerford Prize for highest general scholar- 
ship, which entitled him to a four years' course at Hamilton 
College. In 1876 he was admitted to Hamilton College, and was 
graduated as valedictorian of his class in 1880, with the highest 
rank in scholarship of all graduates but one up to that date. 

After graduation Mr. Gardiner studied law in the Hamilton 
CoUege and Columbia law schools, and received the degree of 
LL. B. He then took a two years' postgraduate course in con- 
stitutional history and constitutional law at Syracuse University, 
and upon examination the university conferred on him the de- 
grees of A. M. and Ph. D. 

In June, 1884, he came to New York and entered the law 
office of ex-Judge Horace Russell, where he remained until 
December of that year, when he entered the office of Messrs. 
Davies & Rapallo. In 1888 he became a member of that firm, 
and has retained his connection with it ever since. 

The firm in 1884 numbered among its chents the elevated rail- 



135 



136 CHARLES A. GAEDINER 

road companies of the city of New York, and Mr. Gardiner at 
once became and has ever since been prominently identified with 
the defense in the celebrated elevated-railroad Htigation. 

In January, 1897, the officers and dii'ectors of these companies 
decided to estabhsh a separate law department in connection with 
the general offices of the companies in the "Western Union Build- 
ing, No. 195 Broadway, New York, and Mr. Gardiner was placed 
at the head of the department and made attoi'ney of record for 
the entire system, comprising the Manhattan Railway Com- 
pany, the New York Elevated Railroad Company, the Metro- 
pohtan Elevated Railway Company, and the Subm-ban Rapid 
Transit Company. 

It is no disparagement to the other learned and able counsel 
who have devoted their talents to the interests of the elevated 
railways to say that behind many of theu" most briUiaut victories 
in the courts has been the work of the attorney who planned 
and shaped the methods of defense, and who, by the manner in 
which he prepared the material for then- use, has done much to 
make their victories possible. Mr. Gardiner occupies to-daj^ a 
imique and enviable position among the coi'poration lawj'ers of 
New York. But two or three as young as he can be said to have 
attained equal standing and reputation, or to have secured so 
excellent results for the corporations and individuals they 
represent. 

Mr. Gardiner has maintained his interest in constitutional, 
historical, and social problems, has contributed to the " North 
Amei'ican Review" and other pubhcations, and has delivered 
addresses before historical and other societies on these subjects. 
He has done much original work in his favorite studies, and has 
collected with care a private hbrary of several thousand volumes 
on constitutional and historical subjects. 

He was married, in 1890, to Miss Alice May Driggs, and their 
home is at No. 697 Madison Avenue, New York city. He is a 
member of the Metropohtan and Democratic clubs, the Ardsley 
Country Club, the Association of the Bar, the Phi Beta Kappa 
Society, the Alpha Delta Phi Fraternity, and other societies and 
associations. 




f 







ISAAC EDWIN GATES 

THE founder of tlae Gates family in this country was Stephen 
Gates, who came from Norwich, England, and settled in Bos- 
ton, Massachusetts, in 1638. Thereafter members of the family in 
successive generations filled their places as members of the young 
commonwealth, contributing to its material and moral growth. 
The Hewitt family was also planted in New England at an early 
date, and both there and in other parts of the Union has had a 
conspicuous and honorable record. 

In the last generations of these two families, Cyrus Gates and 
Patty Hewitt were married and hved in New London County, 
Connecticut, their home being a typical New England farm. 
There, at Preston, Connecticiit, on January 2, 1833, their son, 
Isaac Edwin Gates, was born. The family was in modest circum- 
stances, and the boy, when he became old enough, had to " do 
chores " and perform the labors incident to farm hfe. It was his 
ambition, however, to acquire a fixst-class education, though to 
do so he had to work his way and pay his own expenses. 

This he did with admirable success. He first attended the 
local pubhc school. Then he sought preparation for college at 
the Connecticut Literary Institution, at Suffield, Connecticut. 
From the latter he proceeded to Madison (now Colgate) Univer- 
sity, at Hamilton, New York. At the latter institution he was 
also a student in the Theological Seminary, and upon the com- 
pletion of his course he was received into the ministry of the 
Baptist Church. He remained in that profession for nine years, 
his pastorate being qviite successful. On May 1, 1869, however, 
he resigned his pastorate and retired from the ministry, on 
account of impaired health. 

He then went into the railroad business. His first engagement 

137 



138 ISAAC EDWIN GATES 

was made on May 11, 1869, with the Central Pacific Raih-oad 
Company, and it took him into a part of the country favorable 
to the restoration of his health. He has maintained his connec- 
tion with that company, and with its successors, down to the 
present time. He has also been connected with the Chesapeake 
and Ohio Railroad, the EUzabethtown, Lexington and Big Sandy 
Raih-oad, and the Chesapeake, Ohio and Southwestern Railroad, 
as secretary and treasurer. 

Mr. Gates is now president of the Texas and New Orleans 
Railroad; acting vice-president and assistant secretary of the 
Southern Pacific Company ; treasurer of the Newport News Ship- 
building and Dry Dock Company ; treasurer of the Old Dominion 
Land Company ; assistant secretary of Morgan's Louisiana and 
Texas Railroad and Steamship Company ; and assistant treasurer 
of the Houston and Texas Central Raih-oad. 

Mr. Grates has never held nor sought pohtical preferment, and 
has confined his political activities to the performance of the 
duties of a private citizen. 

He is a member of the Quill Club of New York city, the New 
England Society of Orange, New Jersey, the Washington Society 
of New Jersey, and the Madison (now Colgate) University Chap- 
ter of the Phi Beta Kappa Fraternity. 

He was married, in 1861, to Miss Ellen M. Huntington, who 
has borne him one daughter, Helen, now the wife of Archer M. 
Huntington. 






i 



^mx^^cMd 






EDWARD NATHAN GIBBS 

THE tide that, "taken at the flood, leads on to fortune," is 
found sometimes by chance, sometimes by earnest seeking. 
The former method may be the more spectacular ; the latter is 
the more usual and by far the more certain of success. For 
every one who gains great wealth or power by happy chance, 
there are many who do so by vu-tue of fixed determination and 
patient effort. It is as true in business as in Uterature and art 
that genius is a capacity for hard work and for taking pains. 
Of this an admirable exemplification is found in the career of 
the subject of this sketch. In his very childhood he conceived 
the ambition to become a banker and financier. By stress of 
circumstances he was at times forced into other occupations; 
biit his mind remained fixed upon that single pm-pose, and his 
course was at every opportunity shaped toward that end, until 
in a more than ordinarily successful degree the ideal of his youth 
was realized and he became a prosperous banker and an ac- 
knowledged power in the financial world. 

Edward Nathan Gibbs is of English ancestry and of New 
England bu-th. He was born at Blandford, Massachusetts, in 
January, 1841, and received his only class-room education in the 
pubhc and high schools, ranking as an apt and attentive pupil. 
At the age of sixteen, when many of his comrades were thinking 
of entering college, he was constrained to lay aside his school- 
books for the account-books of a business office. First he became 
a clerk on the Berkshire division of the New York, New Haven 
and Hartford Railroad, He soon perceived, however, that in 
such a service — as in the army, according to "Benny Havens" — 
"promotions 's very slow," and that his rate of progress toward a 
bank presidency was infinitesimal ; wherefore he presently gave 

139 



140 EDWARD NATHAN GIBBS 

up that place and became an accountant in a large dry-goods 
store at Pittsfield, where he remained three years, and then found 
the long-sought opening. He became discount clerk in the 
Thames National Bank at Norwich, Connecticut. Thus, before 
attaining his majority, he was engaged in a work that was not 
only congenial to him, but was a reahzation of the life-plans he 
had made. The feehng that he was at last in his chosen voca- 
tion added energy to his ability and integiity. His services were 
appreciated by the higher officers of the bank. He became a 
marked man, marked for successive promotions, from rank to 
rank, through aU the grades. He was now indeed a banker, 
whether as clerk, teller, cashier, or vice-president. At last, in 
1890, the final step was taken : he was elected president of the 
bank ; and the ambition of the boy was gratified in the achieve- 
ment of the man. His twenty-six years of service in various 
capacities gave him the best possible preparation for the respon- 
sibihties that now rested upon him. The bank was one of the 
oldest in the State. Under his presidency it became one of the 
strongest and one of the soundest and best managed in all 
the land. Its capital stock was one million doUars. Before he 
left its president's chair it amassed a surplus and undivided 
profits of about eight hundred thousand dollars. He resigned 
the presidency of the bank in 1897, but by no means retired from 
active business life. On the contrary, he remained, as he is to- 
day, conspicuously identified with even more important financial 
undertakings. 

It was in 1889, while vice-president of the bank and a resident 
of Norwich, that Mr. Gibbs became officially interested in life- 
insm-ance. He was then chosen to be a trustee of the New York 
Life Insurance Company. In it he soon saw wider scope for the 
exercise of financial talents than a bank could afford, and he 
accordingly turned his attention to it more and more. When a 
crisis came in the affairs of the company, in January, 1892, he 
was selected as one of the committee of five trustees for the all- 
important work of investigation and reorganization. That work 
was so well done that the company was soon placed on a more 
satisfactory footing than ever before. How great and important 
was Mr. Gribbs's share in it may be reckoned from the fact that 
when the reorganization was completed, in August, 1892, he was 



EDWARD NATHAN GIBBS 141 

elected to the treasui-ership, an office then newly created, and 
offered to him for the purpose of securing to the company the 
benefits of his financial abihty, and of enabhng him to execute 
in person the plans he had devised for its welfare. In that office, 
and in that of chairman of the finance committee, which he also 
holds, he controls no mere milUon dollars capital, as in the bank, 
but funds amounting to fiilly two hundred million dollars. Nor 
are his energies exhausted by the onerous duties of this place. 
He is president of the Berkshire Cotton Manufacturing Company 
of Adams, Massachusetts, of which he was one of the organizers 
in 1890, and a director of half a dozen or more railroads, trust com- 
panies, and manufacturing concerns. To all of these he devotes 
time and attention, and in them all makes his individuality felt 
as a potent and beneficent force. 

These manifold activities have not prevented Mr. Gribbs from 
cultivating highly the intellectual, domestic, and social sides of 
life. He was married, in 1867, to Miss Sarah Barker, daughter 
of George P. Barker, formerly Attorney- General of New York, 
and they have one daughter. Miss Georgia Barker Gibbs. His 
home was in Norwich, Connecticut, until 1892, when his duties 
as treasurer of the New York Life Insurance Company requu'ed 
him to reside in New York, He still retains his Norwich home, 
however, and spends a portion of his time there. Both his homes 
are centers of social joys, and are noteworthy for their collections 
of works of art, of which he has long been a liberal but discrim- 
inating purchaser. Mr. Gibbs is a member of several of the best 
New York clubs, including the University, the Metropolitan, and 
the Players', being qualified for membership in the first-named 
by receipt of the well-deserved honorary degree of M. A. from 
Amherst CoUege in 1892. 





THEODORE OILMAN 



THE name of Theodore Oilman's father, Winthrop Sargent 
Gihnan, unerringly indicates his New England origin. The 
family came from England and settled at Exeter, New Hamp- 
shire, in 1638. There it was seated until after the Revolutionary 
War. Joseph Oilman was chairman of the New Hampshire 
Committee of Safety, in the Revolution, and was an earnest and 
active patriot. At the end of the war he went to Marietta, 
Ohio, with the pioneer colony that founded the State of Ohio, 
and was appointed teiiitorial judge by President Washington. 
His son, Benjamin Ives Oilman, was a merchant at Marietta, 
Ohio, and was one of the leaders in the movement which made 
Ohio not only a State in the Union, but a free State. Afterward 
he returned to the East, and was a prosperous merchant in 
Philadelphia and New York. His son, Winthrop Sargent Oilman, 
was a conspicuous figure in the early history of the State of 
lUinois. He was a contemporary and acquaintance of Lincoln, 
Trumbull, and other eminent men of Ilhnois. It was in his 
warehouse at Alton that the martyrdom of Lovejoy took place at 
the hands of the mob, after he had himself vaUantly fought for 
the protection of Lovejoy and his printing-office and the right of 
free speech and a free press. 

Afterward he came to New York, and was prominent there in 
business and religious life. His wife was formerly Miss Abia 
Swift Lippincott. 

Of such parentage Theodore Oilman was born, at Alton, 
Illinois, on January 2, 1841. He was educated at Wilhams Col- 
lege, and was graduated there in the class of 1862, of which 
Franklin Carter, now president of the college, the Rev. John A. 
French, Professor E. H. Oriffin of Johns Hopkins University, 



142 





tlr^c 



OA^^ 




t>C-CJ^^i 




THEODORE OILMAN 



143 



Professor G. L. Raymond of Princeton, Colonel Archibald 
Hopkins, J. Edward Simmons, the New York banker, the late 
General S. C. Armstrong, and other prominent men were also 
members. 

On leaving college Mr. Gilman entered the banking-house of 
his father, in this city, and has continued in that occupation ever 
since. He has held no pohtical office, but has interested himself 
in public affairs. He has written numerous articles for current 
periodicals on philosophical and financial topics, and has read 
papers before various societies. He framed a bill for the incor- 
poration of clearing-houses, which was introduced in the House 
of Representatives on January 7, 1896, and he appeared before 
the Banking and Currency Committee of the Fifty-fourth and 
Fifty-fifth Congresses in its behalf. He has also published a 
book on "A Graded Banking System." 

Mr. Gilman belonged to the college fraternity of Kappa 
Alpha. He is a member of the Union League and various other 
clubs, the Sons of the American Revolution, in which he is 
president of his chapter, the New England Society, and the New 
York Sabbath Committee, of which he has been treasurer since 
1880. 

He was married, on October 22, 1863, to Miss Elizabeth Drinker 
Paxson, and has five children, as follows : Frances Paxson 
Gilman, Theodore Gilman, Jr., Helen Ives Gilman, Robbius 
Gihnan, and Ehzabeth Bethune Gilman. 




FRANK J. GOULD 



ST. EDMONDSBURY, England, was the old-country home 
of the Gould family. Before the middle of the seventeenth 
century, however, one of its members deserted the old home for 
a new one in the new land. It was about 1645 that Nathan 
Gould, the first of the name in America, came over and settled 
at Fairfield, Connecticut. There he soon became a leading citi- 
zen, along with John Winthrop, Samuel Wyllys, John Mason, 
John Talcott, and others, and was with them in signing the 
petition to the king for a charter for the colony. When the 
charter was granted, Nathan Gould's name appeared in it as 
one of those to whom it was granted. He became a major in 
the colonial troops, and was for many years an assistant to the 
Governor, or member of the Legislative Council. He was rated 
as the richest man in the community, and when he died he was 
recorded in the town archives as " the worshipful Major Nathan 
Gould." 

Nathan Gould's son, Nathan, became Deputy Governor and 
chief justice of the Supreme Court of the colony of Connecti- 
cut. His grandson, Abraham Gould, was a colonel in the 
Revolutionary Army, and was killed in battle at Ridgefield, 
Connecticut, in 1777. His two brothers were also in the patriot 
army. Abraham Gould had a son, also named Abraham, who 
became a captain in the army, and a grandson of the latter was 
Jay Gould, one of the greatest American financiers of his or 
any generation. Jay Gould, who was born at Roxbury, New 
York, in 1836, was at first a surveyor and map-maker, then a 
tanner, and founder of the town of Gouldsboro, Pennsylvania. 
Then he came to New York, became a leading broker on "Wall 
Street, and finally became one of the greatest railroad and tele- 



144 



FEANK J. GOULD 145 

graph proprietors in the world. His identification with the 
Erie, Union Pacific, Texas and Pacific, Missom-i Pacific, Wabash, 
and Manhattan Elevated railroads, and the Western Union 
Telegraph Company, is a part of the business history of America. 
He died in 1892, one of the richest and most influential men in 
the world. His wife, who died not long before him, had been 
Miss Helen Day Miller, daughter of Daniel S. Miller, a leading 
merchant of New York, and a descendant of an old English 
family which settled at Easthampton, Long Island, in early 
colonial days. Mi\ and Mrs. Jay Gould left two daughters, 
Helen Miller Gould, and Anna Gould, now the Countess de 
Castellane of France, and four sons, George, Edwin, Howard, 
and Frank, all four of whom are now interested in carrying on 
and even extending the gigantic business enterprises which 
their father left to them. 

Frank Jay Gould is the youngest child of the late Jay Gould. 
He was bom in this city on December 4, 1877, and received the 
sound home training characteristic of the family. He was edu- 
cated first by tutors at home, then at the E. D, Lyons Clas- 
sical School, and then at the Berkeley School in this city. 
Finally he took a special course at New York University, paying 
attention chiefly to engineering and the sciences, in which he 
ranked as an admirable student. He was while in the univer- 
sity a member of the Psi Upsilon Fraternity, and took an active 
part in all its affairs. He was the chairman of its building com- 
mittee, which secured for it the fine new chapter-house at 
University Heights, for the construction of which Mr. Gould 
personally turned the first sod in the fall of 1898. On leaving 
the university he gave to its engineering department several 
thousand dollars' worth of instruments, and a collection of valu- 
able mineral specimens. He has taken an active interest in the 
welfare of the university, and is now a member of its council. 

In his boyhood Mr. Gould was taken on extended travels in 
Europe. He has also made many trips through the United 
States, on both pleasiu^e and business. He thus spent most of 
his vacations during school years. Before he was fifteen years 
old, too, his father introduced him into many of the meetings of 
his railroad boards, and made him a member of one of the com- 
mittees of the Manhattan Elevated Railroad Company. In this 



146 FRANK J. GOULD 

way he was early filled with practical knowledge of the world, 
and fitted for enti-ance upon a serious business career. 

Such a career began in December, 1898. At that time he 
attained his legal majority, and entered upon the possession of 
that part of his father's great legacy, amounting to many mil- 
lions, which had thus far been held in trust for him ; or, more 
strictly, he entered upon the enjoyment of the income from it, 
the principal of the whole estate being held intact by trustees. 
On December 29, 1898, he entered the financial world of Wall 
Street by purchasing a seat in the Stock Exchange, for which, 
besides his initiation fee of one thousand dollars, he paid the sum 
of thirty thousand dollars, one of the highest prices ever paid 
for a seat in the Exchange. About the same time he became a 
director of the St. Louis, Iron Mountain and Southern RaUroad, 
one of the great system of the so-called Gould railroads. He 
has since devoted himself to his business with much of the 
application and ability that distinguished his famous father. 

Mr. Gould has already manifested a marked degree of that 
benevolent spirit which has been shown by other members of 
the family. While he was in the university he gave a fine new 
school-house, with tower, clock, and bell, to his father's native 
village of Roxbury. His gifts to the university have already 
been mentioned. He heartily seconded his sister, IVIiss Helen 
Gould, in her patriotic work during the Spanish War of 1898 
and afterward. He is fond of out-of-door sports, and is an 
enthusiastic dog-fancier, having in his kennels some of the finest 
St. Bernard and other dogs in the world. 

He is a member of the Psi Upsilon Club, the Ardsley Club, 
the KnoUwood Country Club, the Ocean County Hunt and 
Country Club of New Jersey, the Lawyers' Club, the St. Nicho- 
las Skating Club, the Country Cycle Club, and various other 
organizations. 






I 



GEORGE J. GOULD 



"TTAVING developed a remarkable business ability, and hav- 
Xi ing for twelve years devoted himself entirely to my busi- 
ness, and dimng the past five years taken entire charge of all 
my difficult interests." 

That fragment of a sentence, taken fi'om the will of one of the 
greatest financiers of the age, is fittingly applicable to that fiuau- 
'cier's son and successor, whom it was intended to characterize. 
The name of Jay Goiild is a landmark in the financial and indus- 
trial history of America. Of his eldest son it is to be said that 
he has well sustained the importance of the name. 

George J. Gould was born in the city of New York on Febru- 
ary 6, 1864. His early education was received at private schools, 
and was finished at the Cornell School, on Forty-second Street, 
from which he was graduated in 1880. Then, at the age of six- 
teen years, he entered his father's office and began the business 
career that has placed him, at his present early age, in the fore- 
most rank of the world's financial forces. Inherited ability and' 
the personal guidance of his father's master mind made his 
progress rapid. At an age when most young men are intrusted 
with only simple routine matters he acquired an intimate know- 
ledge of the essential operations of enormous enterprises and 
was intrusted with their management. Immediately upon at- 
taining his majority he was elected a director in each of the 
great corporations under his father's control, and his name soon 
began to be linked with that of his father, on aU but equal 
terms. He was in time elected to high offices in these corpora- 
tions, so that on his father's death, on December 2, 1892, he was 
naturally prepared to succeed him as their executive and con- 
trolhng head. So complete was this readiness, and so great the 



147 



148 GEORGE J. GOULD 

confidence felt by the business world in his ability to discharge 
the gigantic trust, that not the shghtest disturbance in values of 
securities of those companies was suffered in the making of the 
change. 

Mr. Gould is now the head and master mind of six of the 
greatest industrial enterprises — railroads and telegraphs — in 
America, involving six hundred milhon dollars in stock and 
bonds, and commanding the services of eighty thousand 
employees, besides being interested in numerous other con- 
cerns. For years his properties have been noteworthy for their 
prosperity, for their admirable service of the public welfare, and 
for the satisfactory relations existing between the employer and 
the army of employees. 

Business, even of such magnitude, has not, however, monopo- 
hzed his attention. He has found time for much travel in all 
parts of the world, and for a healthy participation in out-of- 
door sports and the joys of social life. He has a splendid estate 
of twenty-five hundred acres of mountain and forest in the heart 
of the Catskills, the scene of some of his father's early labors. 
For a time he had a fine house in New York city ; but resenting 
what he deemed the unjust discriminations of the tax officers, 
he removed his home a few years ago to the beautiful village of 
Lakewood, New Jersey, where he completed, in 1898, one of the 
finest country houses in America. Living there on the edge of 
a great pine forest, he is a leader of his townsmen in the sports 
of the field. He has also made for himself a name as a generous 
patron of yachting. He takes no part in politics above that of 
a private citizen. But in the latter capacity he has shown 
splendid patriotism, as when, at the outbreak of the war with 
Spain, he offered his fine steam-yacht Atalanta to the govern- 
ment, and said, " All I have is at the disposal of the nation." 

Mr. Grould is a member of most of the first-class clubs of New 
York. He was married, in 1886, to Miss Edith Kingdon, a lady 
of exceptional beauty and chai-m, and has made with her a home 
of singular fehcity. Five children have been born to them. 



SANFORD SHORTER GOWDEY 



THE ancestors of Sanford S. Uowdey included members 
of the English, Scotch, and Dutch races. One of his re- 
mote progenitors of the last-named race was Tuimis Cornehsse 
Swart, who was one of the first settlers of Schenectady, New 
York, in 1662, and whose house was at the east corner of State 
and Church streets, in that place. Mr. Gowdey's father was 
James Coleman Gowdey, a farmer of Orange County, New York, 
and his mother's maiden name was Letitia Elhott. 

Sanford Shorter Gowdey was born of this parentage at Craw- 
ford, Orange County, New York, on November 3, 1852. His 
early education was received at the local schools, both public and 
private. Later he attended a higher school at Newburg, New 
York, and finally the Normal College at Albany. 

His first business engagement was as a clerk, from 1868 to 
1871, in the office of " Wood's Household Magazine," at New- 
burg. Next, in the same city, he entered the law office of the 
Hon. James G, Graham. Thence he came to New York city 
and became a salesman in a lace house. All this was before he 
was done with schooling. After leaving the Normal College 
he traveled through the West, and then became principal of 
schools, successively at Otisville, Orange County, and Little 
Neck, Long Island. He also taught in a school at Troy. Finally 
he came to New York again, studied law under ex-Judge Mc- 
Koon, and in May, 1879, was admitted to the bar at Poughkeep- 
sie as an attorney, and in December following, at Brooklyn, as 
attorney and counselor at law. 

Mr. Gowdey began the practice of his profession at Blooming- 
burg, New York, but soon removed to Little Neck, and thence, 
in 1887, to Middletowu, New York. In 1894 he sought the 

149 



150 SANFOED SHORTER GOWDEY 

larger field afforded in New York city, and at the same time 
made his home at Flushing, Long Island. He has since that 
date been in practice in New York, with even more than the suc- 
cess which had marked his career in smaller places. His prac- 
tice has been of general character, and has largely absorbed his 
attention. He has, however, made some profitable investments 
in real estate in New York city and elsewhere. 

In politics Mr. Gowdey is a Democrat. He was a candidate 
for the office of Recorder of the city of Middletown in 1892. The 
city had a Republican majority of four hundred, but Mr. Gowdey 
claimed to have been elected, and to have been debaiTed from 
office only by irregular counting of the votes. In that claim he 
was supported by many of his friends. His opponent was, how- 
ever, finally declared elected, by eleven votes. Mr. Gowdey de- 
clined to contest the matter further. The next year he was a 
candidate for the office of district delegate to the State Consti- 
tutional Convention, but shared the overwhelming defeat which 
his whole party suffered in that year. 

Mr. Gowdey is a member of various social and professional 
organizations. Among them are the State Bar Association, the 
Masonic Order, — including the Free and Accepted Masons, the 
Royal Arch Masons, Knights Templar, and the Nobles of the 
Mystic Shrine,— the Order of Odd Fellows, the St. Nicholas 
Society, the American Tract Society, the Flushing Association, 
etc. 

He was mamed in St. George's Protestant Episcopal Church, 
Flushing, New York, on January 22, 1891, to Miss Catharine 
Fowler, daughter of the late Benjamin Hegeman Fowler. Two 
children have been born to them : Catharine, bom on November 
2, 1891, and Eleanor, bom on August 1, 1893, and died on 
August 23, 1896. 





I 

I 




JAMES BEN ALI HAGGIN 



THERE have been few careers, in this laud of remarkalile 
performances, more varied and picturesque than that of 
the subject of the present sketch. From his name one would 
hesitate to " place " James Ben Ah Haggin in any one part of 
the Union, and such hesitancy would be judicious, for, as a 
matter of fact, he belongs to all parts. There would be equal 
reason for hesitancy in naming Mr. Haggin's occupation in life, 
for he has had several, and has been successful in them all. 
He is at once a Kentuckian, a Louisianian, a Califomian, and a 
New-Yorker. He is a lawyer, a miner, a real-estate dealer, a 
stock-raiser, a patron of the turf, and a gentleman of leisure. 
Incidentally, it may be mentioned that he is a millionaire many 
times over. 

James Ben Ah Haggin is a native of the Blue Grass State, 
famous for its brave men, lovely women, and fine horses. He 
was born at Frankfort, Kentucky, in the first third of the 
present century, and received as his second name the maiden 
name of his mother, who was a Miss Adeline Ben Ali. He 
received the education appropriate to a Kentucky gentleman's 
son in those days, and was prepared for and admitted to the 
bar. 

He began the practice of his profession at Natchez, Missis- 
sippi, and continued it at St. Joseph, Missouri, and at New 
Orleans, Louisiana. At the bar he was a commanding figure, 
and his undoubted abihty in both office and court-room work 
gave promise of distinguished success. 

In the flush of his early manhood, however, Mr. Haggin was 
seized with the '49 fever, and made his way from New 
Orleans to California. He was not, however, a prospector or 

151 



152 JAMES BEN ALI HAGGIN 

a miner at first, but proposed to continue the practice of his 
profession, rightly reckoning that the new and rapidly growing 
communities of the Pacific coast, with then- vast financial inter- 
ests, would afford him an imsurpassed field. He practised with 
much success in San Francisco and in Sacramento, and might 
have become the leader of the California bar and a leader in 
pohtical life. 

The gold fever was, however, too much for him. He made 
some investments of his professional earnings in mines, and 
these tm-ned out so well that he was encouraged to invest more 
extensively, and presently to withdraw from his law practice 
and devote his whole attention to mining and similar enterprises. 

It has often been said of him, and with more than ordinary 
justice, that everything he touched seemed to turn to gold. 
Certainly there were few other mining operators who rivalled his 
success. Among the more important of the mining properties 
which he developed, or in which he has a commanding proprie- 
tary interest, may be mentioned the Homestake, and others at 
the Black Hills, and the great copper-mines at Butte, Montana. 
In the latter he has been associated with Marcus Daly. He 
also owns numerous mines and mining lands in Arizona, New 
Mexico, and Mexico. 

Mr. Haggin's law firm in California was originally Haggin, 
Latham & Munson. Later and finally it was Haggin & Tevis, 
his partner being the well-known capitalist, Lloyd Tevis. After 
leaving the law, Mr. Haggin retained his association with Mr. 
Tevis, and the two organized the gigantic Kern County Land 
Company of Cahfornia. This company owned some four hun- 
dred thousand acres of land, much of which has been sold, in 
farm lots at from fifty dollars to one hundred dollars an acre. 

A part of this vast domain was appropriated by Mr. Haggin 
himself for his famous Rancho del Pasco. There he became a 
successful agi'iculturist, making a fortune in the culture of 
hops and fruits. He also raised stock of various kinds, includ- 
ing sheep and cattle, on a great scale and with much success. 

His chief attention, however, as became a son of Kentucky, 
was given to horse-breeding, and his ranch presently became 
famous as one of the chief homes in the world of the best 
thoroughbred racing stock. From the Haggin ranch came, 



JAMES BEN ALI HAGGIN 153 

year after year, the most noteworthy horses on the American 
turf. The names of Firenzi and Salvator alone attest their 
general quality. 

It was in the spring of 1886 that the Haggin stable first began 
to figure on the turf in the eastern part of the United States. At 
that time Mr. Haggin and his son, Ben Ah Haggin, brought East, 
to Kentucky, a lot of choice horses, and entered them in the best 
races. Thereafter the stable was brought on to the New York 
tracks, and for years the Haggin horses were among the fore- 
most on the metropoUtan turf. For the promotion of his inter- 
ests on the turf in the East, Mr. Haggin purchased the celebrated 
Elmendorf Farm, near Lexington, Kentucky, and there estab- 
hshed the greater part of his horse-breeding stables. 

Mr. Haggin was married in early life, while he was yet a 
young lawyer, at Natchez, Mississippi. His bride was Miss Saun- 
ders, the daughter of Colonel Lewis Saunders, one of the fore- 
most lawyers of that region. Mrs. Haggin shared all his Jour- 
neys and his triumphs, in the South and on the Pacific coast, 
and was the loyal partner of his joys and sorrows until he was 
about seventy years old, when she died. 

She bore him two sons and two daughters, who grew to ma- 
tiu-ity. The daughters both married. One of the sons, Lewis 
Haggin, engaged in business, and still lives and enjoys great pros- 
perity. The other son, Ben Ali Haggin, was his father's partner 
and comrade in the horse-breeding and racing enterprises. 
Some years ago Ben Ali Haggin and one of his sisters died, 
whereupon Mr. Haggin, aged and bereft, withdrew entirely 
from the turf. His colors have since then been seen no more 
in races. But he maintains his farm and ranch, and is still 
devoted to the breeding and raising of thoroughbred stock. 

After Mrs. Haggin's death Mr. Haggin remained for some 
years a widower. At his Kentucky farm and home, however, 
he was thrown into the society of Miss Pearl Voorhies of Ver- 
sailles, Kentucky. She was a niece of his former wife, and a 
young lady of more than usual beauty of person and mind. 
She had been finely educated at Cincinnati, Ohio, and at Staun- 
ton, Virginia, and through her Kentucky life and training was 
in close sympathy with Mr. Haggin's tastes and activities. It 
was not surprising, therefore, that in the fall of 1897 Mr. Hag- 



154 JAMES BEN ALI HAGGIN 

giu's eugagement to many her was announced, though she was 
little more than one third his age. 

The marriage took place at the home of Miss Voorhies's step- 
father, at Versailles, Kentucky, on the afternoon of December 
30, 1897. The couple came on to New York that evening, in 
Mr. Haggin's private railroad ear, and have since made their 
home in New York city. 

Mr. Haggin has taken no part in pohtics, though his oppor- 
tunities to do so have been many. He is a favorite figure in 
society, and a welcome associate in the clubs of which he is a 
member. Chief among these are the Union and the Manhattan 
clubs of New York. 





i 



N. WETMORE HALSEY 

FOR three generations the paternal ancestors of N. Wetmore 
Halsey were natives of New York city. His great-grand- 
father, Jabez Halsey, was a silversmith, with his home and shop 
on Liberty Street. His grandfather, Anthony P. Halsey, is well 
remembered from his lifelong connection with the Bank of New 
York, of which he was president for the last twelve years of his 
hfe. Mr. Halsey's father, Seton Halsey, left New York and went 
West to engage in farming. The family was founded in America 
by Thomas Halsey, who came hither from Great Gaddesden, 
thirty miles north of London, England. The manor-house there 
in which he was born has been owned and occupied by the Hal- 
seys since 1570, and is now the residence of Thomas Frederick 
Halsey, M. P. Thomas Halsey came to America in 1637, and 
settled at Salem, Massachusetts, whence he removed in 1641 to 
Southampton, Long Island, New York. 

Seton Halsey married Miss Frances Dean, a native of the cen- 
tral part of New York State, and a descendant of the Andi-us 
and Brudner families. To them was born, at Forreston, Ogle 
County, Ilhnois, on December 24, 1856, the subject of this 
sketch. 

Mr. Halsey's boyhood was spent upon his father's farm, where 
he did the work incident to farming in Ilhnois at that date. He 
was, however, sent to school and carefully educated. From the 
local schools he went to Beloit CoUege, in Wisconsin, for three 
years. He did not complete his com-se there, and accordingly 
received no degree. Thence he went to the Union College of 
Law, in Chicago, and was there graduated. 

His first business enterprises were in the rural part of the 
State of Illinois, where he was, from 1880 to 1884, a country 

155 



156 N. WETMORE HALSEY 

lawyer and editor of a country newspaper. In 1884 he removed 
to Chicago, and there for two years was engaged in general law 
practice as a member of the firm of French & Halsey. From 
1886 to 1891 he was attorney for and employee of the fii'm of N. 
W. Harris & Co., bankers of Chicago. Since 1891 he has been a 
member of that firm, and has been its resident partner in New 
York city. He enjoys a considerable reputation in New York, 
Chicago, Boston, and, indeed, throughout the United States, as a 
bond expert and writer, and as a participant in important bond 
negotiations. 

Mr. Halsey has an interest in various companies and large 
properties, though he is not an officer of any of them, 

Mr. Halsey is connected with numerous clubs and other so- 
cial organizations in New York, Chicago, and elsewhere. Among 
these are the Lawyers' Club, the New England Society, and 
the Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York ; the New Eng- 
land Society, the Riding and Driving Club, and the Essex County 
Country Club of Orange, New Jersey; the Field Club of South 
Orange, New Jersey ; the Chicago Law Institute of Chicago ; and 
the college fraternity of Phi Beta Phi. 

He was married in Chicago, on October 20, 1885, to Miss Mar- 
garet Hitt of the well-known Hitt family of Illinois, a relative 
of many prominent Ilhnois public men. Her ancestors on the 
patei-nal side were originally settled in Virginia and Maryland, 
whence they removed to lUinois and colonized a portion of Ogle 
County, in 1835, and have been identified with the development 
of the State, and furnished a number of distinguished public men. 

Three children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Halsej^, named 
respectively Frances, Ralph W., and Helen. The family spends 
portions of every summer at " Halsey Farm," Forreston, Ilhnois, 
one hundred miles west of Chicago, an estate of five hundred 
acres in the richest part of the State. 




OLIVER HARRIMAN, JR. 



THE name of Harriman has for many years been known and 
honored in the commercial Ufe of New York. It is borne 
by Oliver Harriman, formerly of the important firm of Low, 
Harriman & Co. of Worth Street, but now retired. Mr. Harri- 
man was also, during his active business career, a director of 
numerous financial institutions, with some of which, indeed, he 
is still identified. He ranked for a long time among the fore- 
most merchants of the metropolis. He married Miss Laura 
Low, a member of the famUy of his partner, and the bearer of a 
name known and honored in New York for many generations. 

Oliver Han*iman, Jr., the son of this couple, was born in New 
York on November 29, 1862, and received a careful education in 
primary and secondary schools. Finally he entered Princeton 
University, and there pursued with credit the regular academic 
course. He was prominent in college social life as a member of 
the Ivy Club and a leader in athletic sports, in which he per- 
sonally excelled. He was, moreover, a good student, and was 
duly and honorably graduated in the class of 1883. 

His inclinations for business led Mr. Harriman not so much 
toward the mercantile pursuits of his father's firm as toward 
purely financial operations. Accordingly, on leaving college, he 
went into the financial center of the city and entered the employ 
of the well-known fh-m of Winslow, Lanier & Co., bankers. 
There he remained for five years, serving in various capacities 
and being promoted from rank to rank. In that excellent school 
of sound finance he learned the business of banking in a thor- 
ough and pi-actical manner, and prepared himself to engage 
therein successfully on his own account. 

The latter step was taken on January 1, 1888. On that date 

157 



158 OLIVER HARRIMAN, JR. 

Mr. Harriman, being only a little past twenty-five years of age, 
opened the offices of his own firm of Harriman & Co., bankers 
and brokers. In the conduct of that business his natural abili- 
ties and aptitude, and the admirable training of the preceding 
five years, assured him a gratifying measure of success. His 
fii-m has enjoyed much prosperity, and has established itself in 
an honorable rank among the many other houses in the same 
line of business with which the Wall Street region of New York 
is thronged. Mr. Harriman has also become interested in vari- 
ous other enterprises, and is a trustee of the Continental Trust 
Company. 

lilr. Harriman has taken a good citizen's interest in the welfare 
of the city, State, and nation. He has not, however, made him- 
self conspicuous in pohtical affairs, and has held no civil office. 
He has had a creditable and extended career in the mihtary service 
of the State. In April, 1888, he entered the National Guard of 
the State of New York as a second lieutenant of Company F of 
the Eighth Regiment, and there served efficiently for some years. 
In 1894: he was chosen to be an aide-de-camp of Greneral Louis 
Fitzgerald, connnander of the Fu'st Brigade of the National 
Guard of New York. The next year he was selected for the 
office of commissary of subsistence, with the rank of major. 

In the best society of this city Mr. Harriman is a famihar and 
welcome figure. His membership in clubs includes many of the 
best organizations in New York. Among them are the University, 
the Metropohtan, the Knickerbocker, the New York Yacht Club, 
and the Westchester Coimtry Club. His fondness for athletic 
sports, developed in school and college, is still one of his charac- 
teristics, as might be inferred from the names of some of the 
organizations to which he belongs. 

Mr. Harriman was married on January 28, 1891, his bride be- 
ing Miss Grace Carley of Louisville, Kentucky, a member of one 
of the leading families of that city. Their home is, of course, in 
this city, and they are now the parents of one child, a son, who 
bears the names of both his father and his mother — Oliver 
Carley Harriman. 



GEORGE B. McCLELLAN HARVEY 

A NOTABLY successful business and newspaper man of the 
younger generation is George B, McClellan Harvey, proprie- 
tor and editor of the " North American Review." He comes of 
Scottish ancestry, and is a native of Vermont, where he was 
born, at Peacham, on February 16, 1864. He was educated at 
the Caledonia Grammar School in that town, and at an early age 
manifested a strong tendency toward literary and journalistic 
work. When only fifteen years old he began writing for the 
local newspapers, and attained considerable success. At the age 
of eighteen he became a reporter on the staff of the Springfield 
" Repubhcan," one of the foremost papers in New England, 
and remained there two years. Then he went West, and for the 
next year was a reporter for the " Daily News " of Chicago. 

As in old times all roads led to Rome, so in these days all 
journahstic roads lead to New York. At the age of twenty-one, 
with his Peacham, Springfield, and Chicago experience behind 
him, Mr. Harvey came to the metropohs, and became a reporter 
for the New York " World." For nearly seven years he served 
that paper, rising from place to place on its staff until he became 
managing editor, and then editor-in-chief. The last-named place 
he held only a short time, when his health became impaired, 
and he was on that account compelled to resign. That was in 
1893. 

Mr. Harvey then turned his attention to business affairs. For 
two years he was associated in business with William C. Whitney. 
Then he undertook the development of electric railroad and 
lighting concerns on his own account. He built the electric 
roads on Staten Island, and at Long Branch, Asbury Park, and 
elsewhere on the New Jersey coast, and is now president of sev- 

159 



160 GEOEGE B. McCLELLAN HARVEY 

eral of them. In 1898 lie formed what is known as the Harvey- 
Syndicate, and purchased the street-railroads of Havana and 
other properties in Cuba, and to the development and improve- 
ment of them has since devoted much attention. He is vice- 
president of the Monmouth Trust and Safe Deposit Company 
of Asbury Park, New Jersey, of the Lakewood Trust Company 
of Lakewood, and a director of the Audit Company and of the 
Mechanics' and Traders' Bank of New York. 

lyir. Harvey was, at the age of twenty-one, appointed aide-de- 
camp, with the rank of colonel, on the staff of Governor Green 
of New Jersey. He was reappointed and made chief of staff 
by Governor Abbett, and declined another reappointment at the 
hands of Governor Werts. He was also appointed commissioner 
of banking and insirrance by Governor Abbett, but resigned 
the place after a few months in order to give his full time to 
newspaper work. He also dechned the place of consul-general 
at Berlin, which was offered to him by President Cleveland. 

Early in 1899 Colonel Harvey purchased and became editor of 
the " North American Review " of New York, perhaps the most 
noted of hterary and critical periodicals in the United States, 
and has since devoted much time and work to the management 
of it. On taking charge of it, he made this statement of his 
aims : 

" The policy of the ' North American Review ' will be more poignant in the 
future. Its articles will be written by men of the hour. They will be popular 
in their character, while possessing at the same time dignity and weight. I 
expect to edit the magazine, and will follow the general lines laid down by a 
long list of illustrious predecessors. There will be no change of form or manner 
of review. There will be no political partizanship." ^ 

In such manner Colonel Harvey has since that time been con- 
ducting the " Review." From the whirl and intense partizan- 
ship of a daily pohtical paper, and fi-om the keen competition of 
business enterprises, to the dignified calm of a great review edi- 
torship, was a marked transition, but it has been successfully 
sustained. 

Colonel Harvey was, in November, 1899, elected president of 
the well-known pubUshing corporation of Harper & Brothers of 
New York. 





^o^.ifx;A7^./t ^vr^^' 



CHARLES HATHAWAY 



CHARLES HATHAWAY, the head of the well-known firm 
of Charles Hathaway & Co., bankers and brokers of New 
York city, is of mingled English and Scottish ancestry. His 
father was Nathaniel Hathaway, a member of the family of that 
name long prominent at New Bedford, Massachusetts, whither 
it had gone in early days from England. 

Nathaniel Hathaway became interested in the industrial- 
ism which in his day, as at pi'esent, was so marked a featm'e 
of New England, and particularly that part of New England, 
and removing to Delhi, in Delaware Covmty, New York, on the 
upper reaches of the Delaware River, he there established exten- 
sive and profitable woolen mills, the management of which was 
the chief business of his life. 

Nathaniel Hathaway married Miss Mary Stewart, a descendant 
of the illustrious Scottish family of that name which figm-ed so 
largely in the history of both Scotland and England in former 
centuries. 

The offspring of this marriage, Charles Hathaway, was bom 
on December 27, 1848, at Delhi, Delaware County, New York. 
He was educated in the local schools, including the excellent 
Delaware Academy at Delhi, and then at the well-known Wil- 
liston Seminary, Easthampton, Massachusetts. 

His earhest business occupation was as a clerk in the Dela- 
ware National Bank of Delhi, New York. He entered the ser- 
vice of that institution soon after leaving school, and filled the 
place with acceptabihty to his employers and with profitable 
experience and instruction for himself. 

He next turned his attention to the naval service of his coun- 
try, with which several of his kinsmen on the maternal side 



IGl 



162 CHAKLES HATHAWAY 

were or had been prominently connected. In 1872, being then 
twenty-four years of age, he became fleet clerk on the Asiatic 
Squadron of the United States navy, under Paymaster Edwin 
Stewaii, who has now become rear-admiral. 

In both these places 'Mr. Hathaway received much practical 
training in various phases of finance, and was fitted for the 
career into which he was about to enter. His service in the 
navy lasted fi'om 1872 to 1875, when he retm-ned to this country. 

He came to New York city in 1879, and entered the employ- 
ment of the firm of Piatt & Woodward, a leading house of bank- 
ers and brokers at No. 26 Pine Street. There he found himself 
fully started in a metropolitan financial career. His previous 
experience was of much service to him, but there was of course 
much more to learn. He applied himself diligently to the mas- 
tery of aU the details of the business, preparing himself for lead- 
ership in it, and at the same time served his employers with such 
acceptabihty as to win theii* esteem and favor and assure his 
own promotion from place to place in their office. 

His promotion culminated in 1889, when he was received into 
partnership as a junior member of the firm. Thereupon he took 
hold of the direction of the business with the same zeal and in- 
tuition that had marked his subordinate service, and became one 
of the most forceful members of the firm. Five years after his 
entry into the firm, in 1894, the senior partners retired, and Mr. 
Hathaway became the head of the house, which has since been 
and is now known as that of Charles Hathaway & Co. 

To the affau's of this house, and to the promotion of the inter- 
ests of its numerous clients, Mr. Hathaway has devoted and still 
devotes himself with singleness of pm'pose and with unflagging 
energy. He works as diligently as though he were still an em- 
ployee instead of the head of the house, and brings to his labors 
all the accumulated knowledge and experience of his varied 
career and of the excellent financial training which he received 
in earlier years. He has not sought prominent identification 
with other business enterprises, and has taken no part in pohti- 
cal matters beyond discharging the duties of a conscientious 
citizen. The enviable success of his firm is the legitimate result 
of such concentration of his efforts, and the esteem and con- 
fidence with which he is regarded by his clients and business 



CHARLES HATHAWAY 



163 



associates are deserved tributes to the fidelity and integrity which 
have marked his whole career. 

Mr. Hathaway is a well-known and influential member of many 
clubs and other social organizations, both in New York city and 
in the delightful New Jersey suburbs — if a fine city is properly 
to be called a suburb — where he makes his home. In New York 
city he is a member of the Union League Club, the Down-Town 
Association, and some others. In the city of Orange, New Jer- 
sey, he is a member of the New England Society of Orange, the 
Essex County Country Club, and the Riding and Driving Club 
of Orange. He was one of the organizers of the last-named club, 
and has been president of it ever since its incorporation. He is 
fond of fishing and shooting, and is a member of various clubs 
devoted to those sports on Long Island, New York, and in 
Canada. 

Mr. Hathaway was married soon after he entered business life 
in New York, and while he was yet merely an employee in the 
counting-house of Piatt & Woodward. His marriage occurred 
at PlatteviUe, Wisconsin, on October 5, 1882. His bride was 
Miss Cora Southworth Rountree, the daughter of a prominent 
pioneer and business man of the Badger State. Four sons have 
been bom to them : Stewart Southworth Hathaway, Hai-rison 
Roimtree Hathaway, Robert Woodward Hathaway, and Charles 
Hathaway, Jr. 




DANIEL ADDISON HEALD 



THE town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, wliich occupies a unique 
position in the political organization of Great Britain, was 
the old home of the Heald family. From it John Heald came 
to this country in 1635, and settled at Concord, Massachusetts. 
There the family remained for several generations. The grand- 
father of the present representative hved at Concord before the 
Revolution, and held the office of Deputy Sheriff of Middlesex 
County. He was among the " embattled farmers " who stood at 
Concord Bridge and " fired the shot heard round the world." He 
was also in the American army at Bunker Hill. After the war 
he removed to Chester, Vermont. His son, Amos Heald, re- 
mained at Chester, and was a farmer there. Amos Heald mar- 
ried Lydia Edwards, daughter of Captain Edwards of Groton, 
Massachusetts, who also was at the battles of Concord and 
Bunker Hill. 

Daniel Addison Heald, son of Amos and Lydia Heald, was 
born at Chester, Vermont, on May 4, 1818. Until he was six- 
teen years old he lived upon his father's farm, attending in season 
the local school. Then he went to the Kimball Academy, at 
Meriden, New Hampshire, and was prepared for college, largely 
imder the direction of Cyrus S. Richards. Thence he went to 
Yale, as a member of the class of 1841. While in Yale he was 
distinguished as a fine student and a leader among his college- 
mates. He was a member of the Linonian Literary Society, and 
was its president. He also belonged to the fraternity of Kappa 
Sigma Theta. He was graduated in the class of 1841, with 
honorable standing. 

During his senior year at Yale Mr. Heald engaged in the study 
of law, under the direction of Judge Daggett, at New Haven. 



164 



N 




^,^^/e^.^^ 



cX^ 



I 



DANIEL ADDISON HEALD 165 

Afterward he pursued his legal studies with Judge Washburn, 
at Ludlow, Vermont, meanwhile teaching in the academy at 
Chester. In May, 1843, he was admitted to practice at the Ver- 
mont bar, and began the pui'suit of his profession at Ludlow. 
It may be added that, in addition to his graduating degree of A. B., 
he received in course the advanced degree of A. M. 

For three years Mr. Heald devoted himself exclusively to the 
practice of law. Then, in 1846, he extended his intei'ests by be- 
coming cashier of the Bank of Black River, at Proctorsville, 
which place he filled with success for fom" years. Meantime he 
had become interested in insurance, being an agent for the iEtna 
Company of Hartford, Connecticut, and other leading companies. 
More and more this last-named business engaged his attention, 
until at last he decided to devote himself entirely to it. 

He became connected with the Home Insurance Company of 
New York in 1856, and has ever since been identified with it. 
For some time he was an agent of it. Then he became general 
agent. In time he was elected second vice-president of the com- 
pany. Promotion to first vice-president followed. Finally, on 
April 1, 1888, after thirty-two years' service, he became president 
of the company, which place he stiU holds. He has been con- 
nected with fire-insm'ance for more than fifty-seven years, so 
that to-day he may well be considered the dean of the business. 
In addition to the Home Insurance Company, Mr. Heald is 
prominently connected with the National Bank of North America, 
and is a director of the Holland Trust Company and the National 
Surety Company. 

In his early years, before he gave up the law for insurance, Mr. 
Heald was elected to the Vermont Legislature, and served for a 
time in each of its Houses. Mr. Heald was married, on August 
31, 1843, to Miss Sarah E. Washbui'n, who bore him five chil- 
dren. These were Mary E. Heald, who married A. M. Bm-tis in 
1874 ; Oxenbridge Thacher Heald, who died at the age of six 
months; John O. Heald, who married Elizabeth Manning; 
Charles Arthur Heald, who died in 1880, while a senior in Yale 
University ; and AUce W. Heald, who married George L. Man- 
ning. Mrs. Heald died many years ago, and in 1895 Mr. Heald 
married a second time, his wife being Miss Ehzabeth W. Goddard, 
of Newton Center, Massachusetts. 



ARTHUR PHILIP HEINZE 



A FINE combiuation of one of the "learned professions'" 
with practical business is to be observed in the career 
of Arthm* Philip Heinze, who has attained success equally as a 
lawyer and as an investor in mines. ]Mr. Heinze was born in 
Brooklyn, New York, on December 18, 1864. His father, the 
well-known New York merchant. Otto Heinze, was of German 
birth, a son of a Lutheran minister and a descendant of that 
Kaspar Aquila who helped Luther translate the Bible into Ger- 
man, the copy of the Bible which was presented to this ances- 
tor of his in 1547 by the nobles of Thuringia being still in Mi\ 
Heinze's possession. His mother was, before her mamage, 
Eliza Marsh Lacey, a native of Middletown, Connecticut, and a 
descendant of the first colonial Governor of Connecticut. Mr. 
Heinze was educated thoroughly in the schools of Brooklyn, at 
the high school at Leipzig, Germany, at Columbia College, 
where he was graduated with high honors in 1885, at Leipzig 
again, at Heidelberg, and finally at the Columbia University 
Law School, where he was graduated in 1888. 

Mr. Heinze then devoted himself to the practice of the law in 
the New York office of Messrs. Wing, Shoudy & Putnam. 
Upon the death of his father, in 1891, he found his attention 
fully occupied in settling the affau-s of the estate as executor. 
Then he took a trip half-way round the world. In the (-oiu-se 
of Ms travels he visited his youngest brother, F. A. Heinze, at 
Butte, Montana, and decided to join him in the copper-mining 
industry. In 1893 the brothers foimded the Montana Ore Pur- 
chasing Company, and speedily became the third largest cop- 
per-producing company in the State, disbui'sing twelve hundred 
thousand dollars in dividends in four years. Certain copper 



106 




/ 




D 



^^^^i^Z^ 7. /^v^^L^^ 



€^ 



ARTHUK PHILIP HEINZE 167 

companies in Boston then began suits against it, and a great 
mass of litigation, comprising more than fifty suits, was the 
result. Many of these are still pending. In this litigation Mr. 
Heiuze's legal abilities have been of vast service and profit to 
his company, and promise to safeguard its interests to the end. 

Mr. Heinze also conducted for some years the financial part of 
his brother's copper-mining and railroad enterprises in British 
Columbia, where he had built a raih-oad and a smelter, and 
had received a subsidy of four million acres of land from the 
Dominion government. This enterprise was finally sold to the 
Canadian Pacific Railway. Mr. Heinze then entered his father's 
old firm. Otto Heinze & Co., wholesale dry-goods and commis- 
sion merchants of New York. 

Mr. Heinze has always manifested a great fondness for music, 
historical studies, and languages. His proficience as a linguist 
is extraordinary, as he has mastered no less than seventeen lan- 
guages, and speaks five with perfect fluency. He has taken lit- 
tle part in political affairs, fincUug ample occupation for his time 
and talents in business and his social and domestic interests. 

He was married, on June 14, 1899, to Miss Ruth Meiklejohn 
Noyes, the youngest daughter of John Noyes, one of the pioneers 
and most respected citizens of Montana. Their attractive home 
is on Madison Avenue, New York. Mr. Heinze is a member of 
various social organizations of high standing. The bulk of his 
time is, however, divided between his home and his multifarious 
professional and business duties. In the pv;rsuit of the latter he 
unquestionably ranks among the most successful men of his age 
in New York. 




F, AUGUSTUS HEINZE 



F AUGUSTUS HEINZE'S ancestry on his father's side is 
. German, extending unbroken through a famous line of 
Lutheran clergjinen for three centuries. Among them was that 
Aquila who knew the Bible so thoroughly that Luther said 
if all the Bibles were destroyed the book could be restored from 
Aquila's memoiy. Aqmla's Bible, bearing Luther's remark in 
Luther's writing upon its title-page, is still owned by the family. 
Maternally, Mr. Heinze is descended from Connecticut's fii'st 
colonial Governor. 

F. Augustus Heinze was bom in Brooklyn in 1869. Educated 
in the local schools and in Columbia College School of Mines, he 
was graduated as a mining engineer. Finally he went to Ger- 
many and studied in the best scientific schools there. Return- 
ing to the United States, he went West, seeking a business 
opportunity, and settled at Butte, Montana, in 1890. He was em- 
ployed by the Boston and Montana Copper Mining Company as 
a mining engineer, and acquired a thorough practical knowledge 
of the mining and smelting business. 

In 1891 he entered the copper-producing field, competing with 
the great concerns which already occupied and apparently mo- 
nopolized it. His first operations were confined to mining under 
leases, and concentrating ores so produced in a mill located at 
Meaderville. Purchasing this mill, he shortly thereafter arranged 
to erect a smelter. Construction was commenced on Octolier 
27, 1892, and within sixty-eight days the works produced copper 
matte. In 1893 he was incorporated, with several associates, 
under the name of the " Montana Ore Purchasing Company." 

This company, one of the most progressive in the entire State 
of Montana, has been ever among the first to adopt improvements 

168 



r. AUGUSTUS HEINZE 169 

in machinery and refining methods. The company in 1895 em- 
ployed 16,000,000 poimds of copper and 650,000 ounces of silver, 
and paid 32 per cent, in dividends on $1,000,000 capitalization. 
The capital stock is now $2,500,000, and more than $5,000,000 
has been expended for mining properties and improvements. 
The company owns some of the most valuable copper-mines in 
the world, including both the east and west extensions of the 
Anaconda lode. 

Mr. Heinze has been active in other locahties, erecting, in 1895, 
large smelting works at Trail, British Columbia, and connecting 
the same with Rossland by the first railroad entering that town. 
He connected Trail with Robson by a railway which comprises 
part of the Columbia and Western Railway Company. The erec- 
tion of his works at Trail, and the contract which he made with 
the Le Roi Mining Company for smelting 75,000 tons of ore, 
made possible the development both of the Le Roi Mine and 
Rossland district. His enterprises were so important that the 
Canadian Pacific Railway Company purchased his entire inter- 
ests, at a very handsome profit to him, in 1898. 

This transaction accomphshed, he concentrated attention on 
his Butte investments, where some of the older mining companies 
had endeavored to curtail his operations by litigation in the 
courts. The most important of these suits, however, have been 
decided in his favor. These litigations were among the most 
important ever prosecuted in the mining industry of the United 
States, and since 1897, when they were inaugm-ated, several of 
the contesting companies have found it necessary to consolidate 
into what is known as the "Amalgamated Copper Company." 

Mr. Heinze has held no political office, but his personal popu- 
larity and influence in the State is very great. Although younger 
than other prominent mining magnates of Montana, among 
whom might be mentioned Senator Clark and Marcus Daly, his 
abiUty, intellect, and youth, backed by the immense wealth he 
has acquired, promise to soon raise him to a position of greater 
prominence than that yet attained by any one in the State. 



JAMES WILLIAM HINKLEY 

MANY men achieve success in some one calling, and a smaller 
number in two or three. Those who do so in half a dozen 
widely different pursuits are rare, and when found are well worth 
more than passing observation. In the present case success is to 
be recorded as an editor and publisher, as a railroad man, in the 
insurance world, as a manufacturer, as a financier, and, perhaps 
above all, as a pohtical manager. 

James William Hinkley, who was born at Port Jackson, Chn- 
ton County, New York, comes from Puritan stock, and is in the 
fifth generation of direct descent from that Thomas Hinkley 
who was the third Grovemor of the Plymouth Colony, and was 
famous in the King Philip War and other early struggles. He 
was educated at the Smith and Converse Academy, near his 
birthplace, and then was appointed a cadet at the West Point 
MiUtary Academy. At the latter institution he received the 
liberal training, in mind and body, for which that government 
school is noted, and to which credit for much of his success in 
life is to be given. 

On leaving school Mr. Hinkley entered the newspaper profes- 
sion, and became editor and owner of the "News-Press" of 
Poughkeepsie, New York, and afterward editor and owner of 
the " Daily Grraphic " of New York city. His newspaper work 
naturally led him into politics, and gave him influence and power 
in that field. He was from the first a Democrat, and his ability, 
resource, and judgment made him a valuable counselor of that 
party. He rose from place to place in the party organization, 
until he was chosen chainnan of the State Committee to succeed 
Edward Murphy, Jr., United States Senator, and to fiU a place 
that had formerly been held by Daniel Manning, Samuel J. Til- 
no 









Jj^!^€^ 



I 



JAMES WILLIAM HINKLEY 171 

den, and other Democrats of national reputation. The period of 
his chairmanship was marked with many noteworthy triumphs 
of the party at the polls, reflecting the highest credit upon him 
and his lieutenants for their skill and energy in political cam- 
paigning. 

Mr. Hinkley is president of the Poughkeepsie City and Wap- 
pingers Falls Railway Company, and has various other railroad 
interests, all of which he has directed with consummate skiU. 
He was president of the Walker Electric Company, which has 
recently been consolidated with the Westinghouse Electric Com- 
pany. He is interested in other business and manufacturing 
enterprises of magnitude, and makes himself felt as force in each 
and all. He was a close personal and political friend of the late 
ex-Governor Roswell P. Flower, and was associated with him in 
many of his great financial undertakings. 

One of his most notable business connections at present is that 
with the United States Casualty Company of this city. For 
some time he was chairman of the executive committee of its 
board of directors, and in that place his services were dis- 
tinguished by soundness of judgment and du*ectness of action 
which conduced to the great prosperity of the corporation. He 
was then promoted to the presidency of the company, and still 
holds that office with great acceptabihty. Under his lead the 
company has risen to a foremost place among institutions of that 
kind, and in the last few years has more than doubled its assets 
and surplus. 

Mr. Hinkley still makes his home at Poughkeepsie, where he 
has a beautiful mansion and spacious grounds, commanding an 
unrivaled prospect over the Hudson River and surrounding 
country. He spends, however, much of his time in this city, 
and is well known in its busiaess, political, and social life. He 
is a member of the Manhattan Club, Lawyers' Club, Down-Town 
Business Men's Club, and other organizations. 




EDWARD H. HOBBS 



EDWARD H. HOBBS, for many years one of the represen- 
tative lawyers and political leaders of Brooklyn, was born 
at Ellenburg, Clinton County, New York, on June 5, 1835. His 
father, Benjamin Hobbs, was a farmer, a descendant of Josiah 
Hobbs, who came to New England in 1670. His mother, whose 
maiden name was Lucy Beaman, was a descendant of Gamahel 
Beaman, who came from England in 1635, and was one of the 
members of the Massachusetts Bay Company, and a settler of 
Boston. He was educated at the district school at Ellenburg, 
and then at the Franklin Academy at Malone, New York, work- 
ing, meantime, on his father's farm. He was sixteen years old 
when he went to the Franklin Academy and began to prepare 
himself for college. The outlook for a college career was not 
bright, for his means were sorely limited ; but his ambition and 
determination were strong, and not to be daunted by hard work 
and lack of money. He entered Middlebury College, at Middle- 
bury, Vermont, and made his way through it in creditable fash- 
ion, paying his own way, for the most part, by teaching school 
and working at various other occupations. Having thus got a 
good general education, he adopted the law as his profession, and 
began to prepare for the practice thereof. He entered the Al- 
bany Law School, an institution of the highest rank in those 
days, and pursued its com'se with distinction. Admission to the 
bar and entry upon professional practice followed. 

His college course was interrupted by the Civil War. Early 
in that struggle he enlisted as a private in the Union army, 
being then in his senior year at Middlebiu-y. He served through- 
out most of the war in the Army of the Potomac, and also ui 
North and South Carolina, and was promoted to be heutenant 

172 







v.r 










^■^fr^^^i^T^ 



EDWARD H. HOBBS 173 

and adjutant, and acting assistant adjutant-general. After the 
war lie made his home in Brooklyn, and has ever since been 
identified with that city. He began the practice of law in New 
York city, and soon attained marked success, building up a 
large and profitable business. The firm is now composed of 
four members, under the name of Hobbs & Gifford. Mr. Hobbs 
is counsel for a number of large industrial and manufacturing 
corporations. He is also a director of the Bedford Bank of 
Brooklyn. 

For many years there have been few men in Brooklyn politics, 
on the Repubhcan side of the fence, more widely known and 
respected than "Major" Hobbs, as he is familiarly called. He 
has all his life been a consistent and energetic Eepublican, with 
his party loyalty founded, not upon personal interest, but upon 
intelligent principle. He has been a scholarly and eloquent 
advocate of the doctrines of that party, and has contributed 
much to its success in campaigns by his effective speaking. He 
was long a member of the County and State Republican com- 
mittees, and has been a delegate to at least one national con- 
vention and probably a score or more of State conventions. In 
such places his influence has been felt and his services have 
been recognized. He might have had nominations and elections 
to various important public offices, had he so chosen ; but he 
preferred to remain in private Ufe, and, accordingly, has never 
held any public office. 

He is a member of various social organizations, including the 
Union League Club of Brooklyn, the New England Society of 
Brooklyn, the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences, and the 
Delta Kappa Epsilon Club of New York, of which last-named he 
is one of the founders. 

Mr. Hobbs was married at Baltimore, Maryland, in 1868, to 
Miss Juha Ellen Buxton. He has one child, a son, Charles B. 
Hobbs, who is now one of his law partners. 



O-cA-a/^i^^ ..rh^Q . f/fTj/' 





^-^WC 



yL.a". J, 




EUGENE AUGUSTUS HOFFMAN 175 

1863 he went to Burlington, New Jersey, as rector of St. 
Mary's Church. He found that church heavily encumbered 
with debts, and with characteristic energy and ability he set to 
work to clear them off. Witliin a year he had not only done 
this, but had also raised enough money to secure for the church 
the fine bells which now occupy its stately spu'e. Then, in 
186-4, he became rector of Grace Church, on Brooklyn Heights, 
and remained there five years, resigning on account of the ill 
effect of the strong air of the Heights upon his health. His 
next charge, from 1869 to 1879, was the parish of St. Mark's 
in Philadelphia, where he established the first Workingmen's 
Club in an American church, and did other valuable work. 

After twice declining the nomination. Dr. Hoffman was in 
1879 elected dean of the General Theological Seminary. That 
institution was then in straitened circumstances, and needed 
wise direction and financial aid to save it fi'om disastrous de- 
chne. It received both from its new head. Dr. Hoffman's 
administrative ability, his devotion and energy, and the munifi- 
cence of himself and his family soon made it a far stronger school 
than its projectors had ever ventured to expect. A great group 
of fine new buildings, improved grounds, new professorships, 
and rich endowments are among the fruits of his labors at 
Chelsea Square. 

Dr. Hoffman is a member of the boards of niunerous religious 
and charitable organizations, a member of most of the learned 
societies of New York, and of the Century and some other lead- 
ing clubs. He has represented the Diocese of New Yoi'k at the 
last seven General Conventions of the church. He has received 
the degree of D. D. from Eutgers College, Racine College, the 
General Theological Seminaiy, Columbia College, Trinity Col- 
lege, and the University of Oxford, that of LL. D. fi'om King's 
College, Nova Scotia, and that of D. C. L. from the University 
of the South and from Trinity University, Toronto. He has 
written a number of books on rehgious and ecclesiastical themes. 
He is mariied to Mary Crooke Elmendorf, and has hving one 
son and three daughters. 



R C. HOLLINS 



FC. HOLLINS was born in Philadelphia, but has been a resi- 
• dent of New York since boyhood. At the age of seven- 
teen he entered the agency of the Bank of British North America 
in New York, where he rose to the position of assistant cashier. 
At the age of twenty-one he took charge of the Coles estate in 
Jersey City, and sold for that estate to the Erie and Morris and 
Essex Railroad companies a large pai-t of the dock and terminal 
properties now occupied by them. He served for two years as a 
director in the Board of Education in Jersey City. Upon his 
retirement he received a testimonial from the taxpayers for his 
devotion to their interests. In 1879 he became a junior partner 
in the banking and brokerage firm of H. B. Hollins & Co., 
of New York. In 1886 he organized the present banking and 
brokerage house of F. C. Hollins & Co. 

In 1886 Mr. HoUins became a director of the Lake Erie and 
"Western Railway Company, and afterward was appointed chair- 
man of the stock-holders' committee of reorganization. He car- 
ried his plans through and secured the road for the stock-holders. 
He was also a director in the Peoria, Decatur and Evansville Rail- 
way Company, and, as one of the executive committee, sold the 
road to Columbus C. Baldwin and the Hanover Bank interests 
of New York, whereby George I. Seney, who had become finan- 
cially embarrassed, was enabled to pay off his indebtedness. He 
was also a dii-ector in the St. Louis, Alton and Terre Haute Rail- 
way Company for three years, during which time the common 
stock appreciated in value from fifteen to eighty-five dollars per 
share. In 1886 and 1887 he furnished the money for the comple- 
tion of a large portion of the Toledo, Ann Arbor and North Mich- 
igan and the Detroit, Bay City and Alpena (now the Detroit and 



176 



^^1 *W-,- 







F. C. HOLLINS 



177 



Mackinac) railwaj^s. In 1887 and 1888 lie built the St. Louis and 
Chicago and the Litchfield and St. Louis railways in Illinois. In 

1888 he also purchased and completed the Central Missouri and 
the Cleveland, St. Louis and Kansas City railroads, then in course 
of construction, and sold the two roads to a syndicate of contrac- 
tors. The contractors were unable to carry out their plans, 
and Mr. HoUins joined with others and bought the properties. 
Mr. HoUins was elected president of the roads, and was in 1891 
successful in selling them to the Missoim, Kansas and Texas 
and the Missouri, Kansas and Eastern Railway companies. In 

1889 the president of the St. Louis and Chicago Railway, and 
outside speculations of his partner, involved the firm in some 
financial difficulties. Mr. Holhns immediately dissolved the firm, 
assumed all the habihties individually, both of the firm and of his 
partner, who died shortly after, and paid every creditor in full, 
besides taking up two hundred thousand dollars of St. Louis 
and Chicago Railway bonds sold to him by the president of 
that road, which were afterward claimed to have been an over- 
issue. In 1894 Mr. HoUins again became active in business. He 
was one of the committee which reorganized the Indianapolis, 
Decatur and Springfield Railway Company, after which the road 
was sold to the Cincinnati, Hamilton and Dayton Railway Com- 
pany. In 1897 he was appointed chairman of the stock-hold- 
ers' committee of reorganization of Peck Brothers & Co. of New 
Haven, and saved the property to the stock-holders. In 1898 he 
was active in the consoUdation of the Meriden Britannia Com- 
pany with fourteen other silver and silver-plate companies, under 
the name of the International SUver Company, and became the 
largest subscriber to the purchase of the bonds of that company. 
Since that time, he has been engaged in several other large en- 
terprises, including the purchase of the Consohdated RaUway 
Electric Lighting and Equipment Company. 



G>0 





HARRY ROWLEY HOLLINS 



HARRY ROWLEY HOLLINS is of English ancestry. His 
father, Frank Holhns, was a son of Wilham Holhns, who 
came from Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire, England, and 
settled in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1795, and, with his brother 
John, foxmded a counting-house in that city. Frank Hollins 
married Elizabeth Coles, a descendant of Robert Coles, who set- 
tled at Roxbury, Massachusetts, in 1630. The Coles family in 
1700 removed to Long Island, and a branch of them settled at 
Dosoris — now Glen Cove. John B. Coles, a great-grandfather of 
Mr. Hollins, was a prominent merchant of New York city, and 
was one of the founders of the original Tontine Association. 

Harry Rowley Hollins was born in New York city on Septem- 
ber 5, 1854, and was educated in local schools and in the Univer- 
sity of the City of New York, now New York University. His 
incUnations were strongly turned toward financial operations, 
and on beginning business life he first sought a clerkship in the 
house of Levi P. Morton & Co. That was in 1870. Next he 
was a clerk in the house of D. P. Morgan & Co. In 1872 he 
became cashier for Oakley & Co., and in 1873 cashier for John D. 
Prince & Co. In 1874 he made a trip around the world, and in 
1875 he started in business on his own account. 

At that time Mi*. Hollins organized the insurance brokerage 
firm of Grundy, Holhns & Martin, at No. 28 Pine Street. Two 
years later, in 1877, he formed the firm of H. B. Hollins, stock- 
brokers. Finally, in 1878, he founded the firm of H. B. Hollins 
& Co., bankers and brokers, at No. 74 Broadway, with whom 
he is still identified. This firm from the time of its organization 
transacted the bulk of the Vanderbilts' operations on Wall 
Street, until they discontinued their dealings there. Mr. Hollins 



178 




t^^^jxf 



HAREY BOWLEY HOLLINS 179 

was one of the founders of the Knickerbocker Trust Company, 
which was organized in 1884 with a capital of $300,000. In 1886 
his firm acquired control of the Central Railroad and Banking 
Company of Greorgia, of which Mr. Hollins was thereupon elected 
vice-president, and also of the ferries afterward operated by the 
Metropolitan Ferry Company of New York. The firm was 
the first to engage in industrial enterprises, and also to become 
interested in international financial institutions. In 1888 it 
organized a syndicate which pm-chased control of the Banco 
Hipotecario de Mexico, and founded the International Mortgage 
Bank of Mexico, of which Mr. HolHns is now vice-president. 
In that year the firm also acquired control of all the gas-light 
companies in St. Louis, Missouri, and consolidated them under 
the name of the Laclede Gas Light Company. It also acted as 
bankers in the organization of the United States Rubber Com- 
pany, financed the electrical equipment of the Brooklyn City 
Railroad Company, and organized the Long Island Traction 
Company and the Brooklyn, Queens County and Suburban Rail- 
road Company, which companies now form part of the Brooklj^Ti 
Rapid Transit Corporation. It financed the following ferry 
companies, of which it obtained control : the Twenty-third Street 
FeiTy Company, the Union Ferry Company, the Hoboken Ferry 
Company, and the Brooklyn Ferry Company. It also financed 
the East River Gas Company, which has its plant at Ravens- 
wood, borough of Queens, and supphes gas to Manhattan Island 
through a tunnel under the East River. It was the first New 
York banking house to enter Havana, Cuba, after the war, having 
in 1899 organized the Havana Commercial Company. 

Mr. Hollins is connected with the Brooklyn Ferry Company, 
the New Amsterdam Gas Company, the Fort Worth and Rio 
Grande Railway, the International Mortgage Bank of Mexico, 
the Laclede Gas Company of St. Louis, the Plaza Bank of New 
York, the Knickerbocker Trust Company, and other corpora- 
tions. He is a member of the Union, Metropolitan, Racquet, 
and Knickerbocker clubs of New York, and the South Side Club 
of Long Island. He married, in 1877, Miss Evelina Knapp, 
daughter of William K. and Maria M. Knapp, and granddaughter 
of Sheppard Knapp and Abraham Meserole. They have four 
sons and one daughter. 



JOHN HONE 

THERE are no names more honorably distinguished in the 
history of this country than those of Hone and Perry. 
The founder of the former family in America came from Ger- 
many and settled in New York. One of his descendants, the 
gi'eat-gi'andfather of the present subject, was the head of the 
noted auction house of John Hone & Sons, and another was that 
Philip Hone who is remembered as one of the best mayors this 
city ever had. The father of the present subject was John 
Hone, a Columbia College alumnus, and a successful lawyer of 
this city, while his mother was Jane Perry Hone, daughter of 
that Commodore Matthew Calbraith Perry who commanded a 
squadron in the Mexican War and afterward won immortal fame 
by " opening " Japan to intercourse with the world. 

Of such parentage John Hone was born in this city on De- 
cember 14, 1844. He was educated at the well-known Charlier 
Institute in this city, and entered Columbia College in 1861. 
But the caU of patriotism led him to leave college, and on May 
25, 1862, he was mustered into the service of the nation as a 
private in the New York Seventh Regiment. He was called 
into active service at the time of Stonewall Jackson's raid in the 
Shenandoah Valley, and then, in September, 1862, was mustered 
out and returned to college. A second time he forsook college 
for the ai-my, in June, 1863, when he went to the front with the 
Seventh Regiment, A few weeks later the regiment was recalled 
to this city to suppress the Draft Riots. These absences from 
college were objected to by the president of Columbia, and 
accordingly Mr. Hone severed his connection with Columbia and 
was not graduated. But the university — as it had then be- 
come — vindicated his record many years later by giving him, in 

180 



JOHN HONE 181 

June, 1894, the A. B. degree, which, but for his patriotism, he 
would have taken in 1865. 

After leaving college, Mr. Hone entered a banking-house in 
New York, and then transferred his ser\dces to the house of 
August Belmont & Co., where he remained imtil January 1, 1869. 
At that date he opened the house of Hone & Nicholas, of which 
he was the head. It had a successful career until 1876, when it 
went into liquidation. In 1877 Mr. Hone became a member of 
the Stock Exchange, and junior partner of the firm of SmaUey 
& Hone. This connection lasted until 1881, since which time 
he has been in business alone. 

Mr. Hone has been a member of the governing committee of 
the Stock Exchange, and was for two years vice-president of 
the Exchange, in 1890-91. He is a director of the Evansville 
and Terre Haute and of the Evansville and IndianapoHs railroad 
companies, and has been treasm-er and a manager of the Man- 
hattan Club. 

Mr. Hone has taken some interest in political matters, though 
he has held no public office. He was a member of the New 
Jersey Democratic State Committee for three terms, twice a del- 
egate to the New Jersey Democratic State Convention, and in 
1892 he was a delegate at large from New Jersey to the Demo- 
cratic National Convention. 

He is a member of the Metropolitan Club, the Manhattan 
Club, the Larchmont Yacht Club, the Sons of the Revolution, 
the Sons of the War of 1812, and the Grand Army of the Re- 
public. He has been a member also of the Union, Knicker- 
iDOcker, and New York Yacht clubs. 




WILLIAM BUTLER HORNBLOWER 



THE first American member of the Hornblower family was 
Josiah Hornblower, an eminent Englisli civil engineer who, 
at the request of Colonel John Schuyler, came to this coun- 
try in 1753. He became the manager of some copper-mines 
at Belleville, New Jersey, and there set up the first stationary 
steam-engine in America. He was a captain in the French 
and Indian War, a vigorous patriot in the Revolution. There- 
after he was Speaker of the Lower House of the New Jersey 
Legislature, a State Senator, a member of Congress, and a jus- 
tice of the Court of Common Pleas in New Jersey. His son, 
Joseph C. Hornblower, was a lawyer by profession. He was a 
Presidential Elector in 1820, chief justice of the State of New 
Jersey in 1832, member of the Constitutional Convention of 
1844, professor of law at Princeton in 1847, vice-president of 
the first RepubUcan National Convention in 1856, president of 
the New Jersey Electoral College in 1860, and one of the foun- 
ders of the American Bible Society. His son, William Henry 
Hornblower, was a prominent Presbyterian clergyman, a mis- 
sionary, pastor of a church at Paterson, New Jersey, for 
twenty-seven years, and professor in the Theological Seminary 
at Allegheny, Pennsylvania, for twelve years. He married 
Mathilda Butler of SufBeld, Connecticut, a woman of Puritan 
ancestry. 

WilUam Butler Hornblower, the second son of this last-named 
couple, was born at Paterson, New Jersey, in 1851. He was 
educated at the Collegiate School of Professor Quackenbos ; then 
at Princeton, where he was graduated in 1871 ; and at the Law 
School of Columbia College, where he was graduated in 1875. 
Between leaAong Princeton and entering Columbia he spent two 



182 



/ 




r*^/^?^-?:''^' 



mi^ 




BUTLER HOENBLOWER 



n 175:3. 



member of the ilorublower famil 
r, au eminent English civil engineei - 
. .. . ...onel John Schuyler, came to this eo 

He became the manager of some copper-mi: 
at Belleville, New Jersey, and there set up the first statiou 
-steam-engine in Arrierica. He was a captain in the Y< 
and Indian War, a vigorous patriot in the Revolution. 'J. . 
after he was Speaker of the Lower House of the New Jei 
Legislature, a State Senator, a member of Congress, and a v 
tice of the Ck)urt of Common Pleas in New Jersey. His t 
Joseph C. F ' ' V, was a lawyer by profession. He wc 

Presidential ^- a 1820, chief justice of the State of K 

Jersey in 1832, Tiiember of the Constitutional Convention 

1847, vice-president 
'856, presit^ 
'Ue of the :.. 
VViUiam He. 
I^rgyman, a !■ 
i. New Jersey, 
^ ,- theological Ser^'- 

_ .welve years. He u; 

;d, Connecticut, a woman of Puri 



1844, profe 
the first T 

the N • 
der« 
Hon 
sionary, 

twen^' 

at ^'A i.v t-,. . . ■ .J , >- V 

Mathilda Butler 

ancestry. 
WilUam Butler Ho 
"i)le, was bom "* 
:ated at the Col. 



:>cond son of this iast-nui 
:. .,. „ Jersey, in 1851. He 
. ool of Professor Quackenbos; t; 
t Princeton, where he was prfiiduated in 1871; and at the 1 
■>1 of Columbia C where he was graduated in 1.- 

een leaving Princct^ ' 'ntering Columbia he spent 




'■--'<'^5^-«!S^^S»s»' 




'■(p'~-?~r'-c^^rz^^ 



WILLIAM BUTLER HORNBLOWER 183 

years in literary studies. In 1875 he was admitted to practise 
law at the bar of New York, and became connected with the 
firm of Carter & Eaton, with which he remained until 1888. 
In that year he foi'med the new firm of Hornblower & B^Tne, 
which later became Hornblower, Byrne & Taylor. 

Mr. Hornblower has long been one of the most successful 
lawyers of New York. Since 1880 he has been counsel for 
the New York Life Insurance Company. He was counsel for 
the receiver in the famous Grant & Ward bankruptcy cases, 
and has made a specialty of bankruptcy cases and insurance 
suits. His practice in the federal courts has been extensive, 
and among the cases in which he has appeared may be named 
the Virginia bond controversy, and railroad bond cases of the 
city of New Orleans. 

Mr. Hornblower has long taken an active interest in politics 
as an independent Democrat. He has on more than one occa- 
sion been among the foremost leaders of his party in this State, 
especially during the administrations of President Cleveland, of 
whom he was an earnest supj)orter. He also took a prominent 
part in the sound-money campaign in 1896. He has often been 
suggested as a fitting candidate for office, and in 1893 was nomi- 
nated by President Cleveland for a place on the bench of the Su- 
preme Court of the United States. His fitness for the place was 
universally conceded, but his independence in pohtics had dis- 
pleased some party leaders, and his nomination was not con- 
firmed. 

He married, in 1882, Miss Susan C. Sanford of New Haven, 
Connecticut, a woman of Puritan descent, who died in 1886, 
leaving him three children. In 1894 he married Mrs. Emily 
Sanford Nelson, a sister of his first wife and widow of Colonel 
A. D. Nelson, U. S. A. His home in this city is on Madison 
Avenue, and his summer home is Penrhyn, Southampton, Long 
Island. He is a member of the Metropolitan Club and the 
Bar Association, and of various other social and professional 
organizations. 



HENRY ELIAS ROWLAND 



THE last survivor of the historic company that came to the 
New World in the Mayflower was John Howland, who 
died at a great age, after a life full of heroism and adventure. 
He married Ehzabeth Tilley, also a Mai/flower Pilgrim, and they 
had a large family, which spread into the various New England 
States and New York. 

Hemy Ehas Howland comes of the New England branch of 
the family, and is a lineal descendant, in the seventh generation, 
from John Howland of Plymouth Colony. His great-grand- 
father was the Rev. John Howland, who was for nearly sixty 
years a famous Congregational clergyman in the town of Carver, 
Massachusetts. Judge Howland's parents were Aaron Prentice 
Howland and Huldah Burke, who also came of a family dis- 
tinguished in New England annals. Edmimd Bm-ke of New 
Hampshire, member of Congress for many years, and Commis- 
sioner of Patents under Presidents Pierce and Buchanan, was a 
near relative. 

Henry Ehas Howland was bom at Walpole, New Hampshire, 
in 1835. He was prepared for college at the Kimball Union 
Academy, Meriden, New Hampshire, and entered Yale College, 
from which he was graduated in 1854. He took a course in the 
Harvard Law School, receiving his degree of LL. B. in 1857. 
After his admission to the bar he came to New York city and 
began to practise law, which he has continued uninterruptedly, 
except for a short period in 1873, when he was appointed to fill 
an unexpired term on the bench of the marine court. 

As a practitioner he has had an extraordinary success, and he 
has established a high reputation as a speaker, both in coiui; and 
in pohtical meetings. He is a lifelong Repubhcan, and has 



184 




yz^^^-^ -t^ ^^ A^-^if^^c c ^ 



HENKY ELIAS HOWLAND 185 

been active in municipal politics. He was an alderman of the 
city in 1875 and 1876, president of the Municipal Department of 
Taxes in 1880, under Mayor Cooper, and has been the party 
nominee for judge of the Court of Common Pleas and for the 
bench of the Supreme Court. He is president of the Society 
for the Rehef of the Destitute Blind, president of the board of 
the Manhattan State Hospital of New York, and a member of 
the corporation of Yale University. 

Judge Howland is a member of the Metropohtan, the Century, 
the Union League, the University, the Players', the Repubhcan, 
and the Shinnecock Hills Golf clubs, and the New York State 
Bar Association. He is secretary of the Jekyl Island Club, 
secretary of the Century Association, Governor-Greneral of the 
National Society of Mayflower Descendants, and Governor of 
the New York Society, president of the Meadow Club of South- 
ampton, and vice-president and a member of the council of 
the University Club. 

He was married, in 1865, to Miss Louise Miller, daughter of 
Jonathan and Sarah K. Miller, and granddaughter of Edmimd 
Blunt, the famous author of Blunt's " Coast Pilot." 

They had six children: Mary M., Charles P., Katherine E., 
John, Julia Bryant, and Frances L. Howland. Of these three 
only are living. The Howland town house is at 14 West Ninth 
Street, and they have a beautiful country home at Southamp- 
ton, Long Island. 




COLGATE HOYT 



COLGATE HOYT is a son of James Madison Hoyt, who was 
born at Utica, New York, was educated at Hamilton Col- 
lege, maiTied Miss Mary Ella Beebes of New York city, and 
settled in Cleveland, Ohio, where he had a distinguished career 
as a lawyer, real-estate operator, and leader in the benevolent 
activities of the Baptist Church. Colgate Hoyt was born in 
Cleveland, on March 2, 1849. After receiving a careful and 
thorough primary education he was sent to Phillips Academy, 
Andover, Massachusetts. Owing to trouble with his eyes, he 
was, however, compelled to leave school at the end of his first 
year there. He then retvirned home to Cleveland, and was for 
a time employed in a hardware store in that city. Later he 
joined his father in his real-estate operations, and soon became 
himself the owner of some valuable pieces of property. From 
1877 to 1881 he was largely engaged in loaning money on the 
security of real estate. 

Mr. Hoyt came to New York city in 1881, and became a partner 
in the firm of J. B. Colgate & Co., bankers and dealers in bulhon. 
He maintained that connection with much success tmtil the 
death of Mr. Trevor, in 1890, when the firm was dissolved. In 
1882-84 he was a government dii-ector of the Union Pacific Rail- 
way, and was thereafter for some years a company director of 
the same road. He joined Charles L. Colby and Edwin H. 
Abbot in the Wisconsin Central Railroad enterprise in 1884, and 
the three became trustees of the entire stock of the corporation, 
and made the road a through hne from Chicago to Milwaukee 
and St. Paul. They also built the Chicago and Northern Pacific 
Railroad as a terminal, with fine passenger stations in Chicago. 

Mr. Hoyt has been a director and active spirit in the Oregon 

180 



"r 





COLGATE HOYT 187 

Railway and Navigation Company, the Northern Pacific Raih-oad 
Company, and the Oregon and Transcontinental Company. He 
reorganized the last-named as the North American Company in 
1890, under trying circumstances but with entire success. In 
1888 Mr. Hoyt bought the whaleback steamboat patents of Cap- 
tain Alexander McDougall, and organized a company with five 
hundred thousand dollars, known as the American Steel Barge 
Company. Of this corporation he became president and trea- 
surer. It has great shipyards and other works at West Superior, 
Wisconsin, and gives employment to some fifteen hundred men. 
Another of Mr. Hoyt's enterprises is the Spanish- American Iron 
Company, which has a capital of five million dollars, and is 
engaged in the development and operation of the Lola group of 
iron-mines in Cuba. Mr. Hoyt was one of its organizers and its 
treasm-er. He is also proprietor of extensive orange groves in 
Florida, and is a director and first vice-president of the Missouri, 
Kansas and Texas Railroad of Texas. He is a member of the 
New York Stock Exchange, and has exercised no little influence 
in Wall Street affairs. 

Mr. Hoyt was married, in 1873, to Miss Lida W. Sherman, 
daughter of Judge Charles T. Sherman and niece of General 
William T. Sherman and ex-Secretary John Sherman. They 
have four children living. Mr. and Mrs. Hoyt make their home 
in Oyster Bay, New York. Mr. Hoyt is a member of the Metro- 
politan, Union League, Lawyers', Riding, New York Yacht, and 
Seawanhaka-Corinthian Yacht clubs, the Ohio Society, and the 
Fifth Avenue Baptist Church. He is a trustee of Brown Uni- 
versity, Providence, Rhode Island. He was the originator of the 
novel missionary scheme of operating chapel cars on railroads. 
He was also the chief organizer of the famous First Troop of 
Cleveland, one of the finest cavalry organizations in the country, 
which served as escort to President Oarfield and President 
McKinley at their inaugurations. 

Ml'. Hoyt has held no political offices. He is a brother of the 
Hon. James H. Hoyt of Cleveland, one of the foremost members 
of the Ohio Imr, and of the Rev. Dr. Wayland Hoyt, the eminent 
Baptist clergyman. 



THOMAS HAMLIN HUBBARD 



THE names of Hamlin and Hubbard are both well known in 
the history of New England, and of the State of Maine in 
particular. The former has been borne by an eminent college 
president, and by a vice-president of the United States. The 
latter has been conspicuous in the State of Maine for the greater 
part of the century, and is inseparably identified with one of the 
most noteworthy incidents in the political and social history of 
that commonwealth. That incident was the adoption of the 
so-called Maine Law, a law absolutely prohibiting the manu- 
facture or sale of intoxicating liquors of any kind in that State, 
save as chemicals for purely scientific use. The author of that 
famous statute was General Neal Dow. The man who enforced 
it and made it splendidly successful was Dr. John Hubbard. 
This pioneer of prohibition rose into political prominence in 
Maine in the first part of the centiuy. In 1843 he was elected 
a member of the State Senate, and exerted a marked influence 
in that body in directing and shaping important legislation. In 
1849 he was elected Grovernor of the State, and served in that 
capacity for four years. It was during his administration that 
the Maine Law was enacted, and it fell to his lot, accordingly, to 
put it into force. That was no easy task, for Maine had been a 
hard-drinking State, and prejudice against the new order of 
things was strong. Important property interests and political 
influences were arrayed against it. But Grovemor Hubbard was 
tremendously in earnest. He took up the matter with inflexible 
determination and unflagging zeal. In a short time he put the 
law into force as f uUy as any other law on the statute-book, thus 
achieving what innumerable critics had pronounced impossible. 



188 





1 



:,- ^^L^-6-Cr-^^^.C:) 



THOMAS HAMLIN HUBBABD 189 

To him, therefore, the success of the law and its permanent 
retention upon the statute-books of the State are due. 

Governor Hubbard had a wife who was a worthy companion 
for so zealous and masterfid a man. Sarah Hodge Barrett, as 
her name would indicate, was of pm-e New England stock. One 
of her grandsires was a minute-man at Lexington, and a gallant 
soldier in several engagements in the War of the Revolution, 
and was killed in the second battle of Stillwater, just before the 
surrender of General Bm-goyne. A large measure of his patriotic 
spirit descended to his granddaughter, Sarah Hodge Barrett, 
who became the wife of Doctor, afterward Governor, Hubbard. 

Of this parentage Thomas Hamhn Hubbard was born, at Hal- 
lowell, Mame, on December 20, 1838. He received a careful 
preparatory education, and in 1853 was matriculated at Bowdoin 
College. There he pm-sued a studious career, and was gi'aduated 
honorably in 1857. His bent was toward the practice of law, 
and he at once began studying with that end in view, in a law 
office at Hallowell. In 1860 he was admitted to practice at the 
Maine bar. But he was not himself fully satisfied with his 
attainments, and so went to Albany, New York, and entered the 
well-known law school there. On May 14, 1861, he was admitted 
to practice at the bar of the State of New York, and actually 
began such practice, with fine prospects of success. It was not, 
however, for long. An important interruption was at hand. 

That interruption was the one which came to thousands at 
about the same time. The outbreak of the Civil War aroused 
all the young man's patriotic ardor — an element not lacking in 
the sons of Maine — and impelled him to offer his services to the 
national government. He went back to Maine, to his old 
friends and neighbors, and in 1862 joined the Twenty-fifth Regi- 
ment of Maine Volunteers, with the rank of first heutenant and 
adjutant. During a part of his service he was acting assistant 
adjutant-general of his brigade. On July 11, 1863, he was mus- 
tered out, but immediately reentered the service. He was 
actively engaged in raising the Thiriieth Regiment of Volun- 
teers, and on November 10, 1863, was commissioned heutenant- 
colonel in that regiment. In that capacity he served through 
the Red River campaign, and soon was promoted to the command 
of the regiment, and led it in the assault upon Monett's Bluff. 



190 THOMAS HAMLIN HUBBABD 

He assisted in the construction of the famous Red River dam, 
by means of which the depth of water in the river at that point 
was increased sufficiently to float out the Federal gunboats and 
thus save them from serious embarrassment. He also helped to 
bridge the Atchafalaya River with a line of boats, for the passage 
of the army. 

A colonel's commission came to him on May 13, 1864, and he 
was transferred with his regiment to the Shenandoah Valley, in 
Virginia. He there served throughout the remainder of the 
war, sometimes in command of his regiment, sometimes in com- 
mand of a whole brigade. He also served as presiding judge of 
a court martial. In April, 1865, he was ordered to Washington, 
and there, in the following month, participated in the grand 
final reviews. Later he was sent to Savannah, Georgia, to con- 
duct examinations of officers of the volunteer army who wished 
to be transferi'ed to the regular army. And, finally, on July 13, 
1865, he received the commission of a brevet brigadier-general, 
and then was honorably mustered out of the service. 

Greneral Hubbard then returned to the law practice, which had 
been so completely interrupted three years before. He came 
straight to New York city, and for a year or more was associated 
with the Hon. Charles A. Rapallo. Then, in January, 1867, he be- 
came a partner in the firm of Barney, Butler & Parsons. Seven 
years later the firm was reorganized into its present form and style 
of Butler, Stillman & Hubbard. In its affairs General Hubbard 
has from the first played a leading part, and he has long been 
recognized as one of the leaders of the New York bar. His 
engagements as counsel have included many cases in which 
enormous commercial interests were involved. Much of his 
practice, indeed, has been in the interest of corporations and 
great industrial enterprises, and to that branch of professional 
work he has paid particular attention, and in it he has become 
an assured authority. Such professional practice has naturally 
led him into other business relations with corporations. Thus 
he is a director and vice-president of the Southern Pacific Rail- 
road Company and president of several other railroad companies 
affihated therewith. 



COLLIS POTTER HUNTINGTON 

TTIHE village of Harwinton, in picturesque Litchfield County, 
X Connecticut, was the native place of Collis Potter Hun- 
tington, where he was born on October 22, 1821. He was the 
fifth of nine children, and at the age of fourteen years left school 
and began the business of life. For a year he was engaged at 
wages of seven dollars a month. In 1837 he came to New York 
and entered business for himseK on a small scale. Then he 
went South, and gained much knowledge of the region in which 
some of his greatest enterprises were afterward to be conducted. 
At the age of twenty-two he Joined his brother Solon in openmg 
a general merchandise store at Oneonta, New York, and for a 
few years applied himself thei'eto. But he longed for more 
extended opportunities, and found them when the gold fever 
of 1849 arose. 

Mr. Huntington started for Cahf ornia on March 15, 1849, on the 
ship Crescent City, with twelve hundred dollars, which he di-ew 
out of his firm. He reached Sacramento some months later 
with about five thousand dollars, having increased his capital 
by trading in merchandise during his detention on the Isthmus. 
He at once opened a hardware store there, which is still in 
existence. Business was good, profits were large, and by 
1856 he had made a fortune. Then he turned his attention 
to raih'oads, especially to a line connecting the Pacific coast 
with the East. In 1860 the Central Pacific Railroad Company 
was organized, largely through his efforts, and he came back 
to Washington to secure government aid. He was successful, 
and the sequel was the building of the first railroad across the 
continent. He was one of the four who gave that epoch-making 

191 



192 COLLIS POTTEK HUNTINGTON 

work to the nation, the others being Messrs. Hopkins, Stanford, 
and Crocker. 

The Central Pacific road was completed in May, 1869. Later 
Mr. Huntington and his three associates planned and built the 
Southern Pacific road. When Colonel Scott sought to extend 
the Texas Pacific to the west coast, Mr Huntington hurried 
the Southern Pacific across the deserts of Arizona and New 
Mexico, and met the Texas line east of El Paso. Thence he 
carried his line on to San Antonio. In the meantime he had 
acquired various lines east of San Antonio, including the Gal- 
veston, Harrisburg and San Antonio, the Texas and New Orleans, 
the Louisiana Western, and the Morgan's Louisiana and Texas 
railroads. In 1884 he organized the Southern Pacific Company, 
and under it unified no less than twenty-six distinct coi-porations, 
with some seven thousand miles of railroads and some five 
thousand miles of steamship lines in the United States and five 
hundred and seventy-three miles of railroads in Mexico. 

Even these stupendous enterprises did not exhaust the energy 
nor satisfy the ambition of Mr. Huntington. He and his asso- 
ciates acquired the Guatemala Central Railroad, probably the 
best railroad property in Central America, and opened coal- 
mines in British Columbia. Not content with his railroad system 
fi'om the Pacific to the Gulf, he reached out to the Atlantic as 
well, gainiag a controlling interest in various Eastern railroads, 
and estabhshing at Newport News, Virginia, where the system 
terminated, one of the greatest shipyards in the world, and a 
port for commerce which already has secured a large share of 
the foreign trade of the United States. 

Of late years Mr. Huntington has resided most of the time in 
this city. Despite his long career and advancing age, he still 
exhibits the energy and ambition of youth, and the abihty 
thereof for hard and continuous work, his fine native consti- 
tution having been kept unimpaired. 




^r. 



^XA.e-A.-«-,OEy L- 



t( . c^ 




CLARENCE MELVILLE HYDE 

THE family of Hyde, which is not without distinction in the 
history of Great Britain, was among those eariiest trans- 
planted to the North American colonies. Its pioneer and pro- 
genitor on these shores was William Hyde, who came from 
England in 1632. He fii'st settled at Hartford, Connecticut, and 
later removed to Norwich. There the family was permanently 
established, and there it contributed much, thi-ough many gen- 
erations, to the growth, not only of the city of Norwich, but of 
the entire colony and State. Indeed, the Hydes played no small 
part in the affau-s of the colonies in general. We find, in the 
third generation, Simon Lathrop, a son of William Hyde's 
daughter, serving with gallantry as a lieutenant-colonel of Con- 
necticut troops at the memorable capture of Louisburg. Again, 
in the next generation, James Hyde was a lieutenant of Connec- 
ticut troops in the patriot army in the War of the Revolution, 
being connected with the First and Fourth Connecticut regi- 
ments successively. 

The sixth generation discloses the name of Edwin Hyde, a 
wholesale grocer in the city of New York, his father, Erastus 
Hyde, having come hither from Connecticut, the first of the 
family to leave that State. Edwin Hyde was associated in busi- 
ness with Ralph Mead, a man of old Connecticut ancestry, and 
he married Mr. Mead's daughter, Elizabeth Alvina Mead. Their 
home was at No. 95 Second Avenue, a pari of the city that in 
early days promised to be the chief center of fashion and wealth, 
but which was in time outstripped by Fifth Avenue. 

To that couple, at that address, Clarence Melville Hyde was 
bom, on January 11, 1846. At the age of seven years he was 
sent to a primary public school, where he manifested more than 
ordinary ability in mastering his lessons. His progi-ess was so 

193 



194 CLAKENCE MELVILLE HYDE 

rapid, and, at the same time, sure and thorough, that at the age 
of twelve years he was able to go to the Columbia College Gram- 
mar School to begin his college preparatory course. Foui- years 
later he was matriculated at Columbia College, where he pursued 
a. most creditable career, and was duly graduated as a member of 
the class of 1867, with a fine reputation for scholarship. His 
next step was to enter the Law School of Columbia College, 
there to continue his briUiant career. He was graduated in the 
class of 1869, with the degree of LL. B., and the next year the 
college added to his A. B. degree that of A. M. 

Mr. Hyde was not the inheritor of a great fortune, but had his 
own way to make in the world, and he set out diligently to make 
it. He Hved quietly, studied earnestly, and worked hard at his 
chosen profession. After his admission to the bar, he engaged 
in general practice, but made a specialty of real-estate business, 
accountings, etc., a department of the legal profession for which 
there is in New York much demand, and which is accordingly 
profitable. In such practice he was eminently successful, and 
he rose rapidly to a leading place at the bar. 

Mr. Hyde early took the active interest in public affairs that 
was to be expected of a man of patriotic ancestry. He affiliated 
himself with the Repubhcan party, and was earnestly devoted to 
the promotion of its principles and welfare. During the admin- 
istration of President Arthur he served as deputy consul-general 
at Vienna, but apart from that has held no public office, and has 
sought none. 

His official duties, of course, took him abroad. So have his 
professional duties, more than once. Either on business or on 
pleasure, he has crossed the Atlantic Ocean no less than forty 
times, and has traveled extensively in Europe. 

Mr. Hyde is a member of the Union League, Repubhcan, 
Metropolitan, Lawyers', and Down-Town clubs, the Military 
Order of Foreign Wars, the Society of Colonial Wars, the Sons 
of the American Revolution, and the New York Chamber of 
Commerce. 

Mr. Hyde was married, in this city, in 1891, to Miss Lillia 
Babbitt, youngest daughter of the late B. T. Babbitt, and has 
one daughter, Clara Babbitt Hyde. His home is in this city, 
and he has a fine summer residence at Greenwich, Connecticut. 



FREDERICK ERASTUS HYDE 



DR. HYDE is one of seven brothers, descended from early 
New England ancestry. The Hydes came fi-om England 
to Boston in 1633, a year or two later moved to Hartford, then 
to Saybrook, Connecticut, and, finally, with some thu'ty other 
families, settled on the Thames River where the city of Norwich 
now stands. There Edwin Hyde, Dr. Hyde's father, was boru. 
Dr. Hyde's paternal grandfather was Lieutenant James Hyde, 
who served in the Revolutionary ai-my, and was with Washing- 
ton at Valley Forge and Yorktown. Another ancestor was 
Lieutenant-Colonel Simon Lathrop, who was put in command 
of the fort after the taking of Louisbm-g, Cape Breton, in 1745. 
Dr. Hyde's mother was formerly Miss Elizabeth Alvina Mead, a 
descendant of the Meads who settled at Greenwich, Connecticut, 
about 1640. The original farm of John Mead, with a house built 
in 1793, is now in Dr. Hyde's possession. 

Frederick Erastus Hyde, a descendant in the seventh genera- 
tion from the founder of the family in America, was born in the 
city of New York on February 25, 1844. He entered the Col- 
lege of the City of New York, intending to pursue its full course. 
His studies were interrupted by illness, however, and he was 
reluctantly obliged to leave college. 

At the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861 he enhsted hi the 
organization known as the Union Grays; but in 1862 it was 
mustered into the Twenty-second Regiment of New York Yohm- 
teers and sent to the front. Service on the field of battle did 
not come until the next year, 1863, but there was plenty of it 
then, for he went with the regiment all through the Gettysburg 
campaign. His desire was to sei've all through the war, Imt the 
exposures incidental to a soldier's life told severely upon his not 

195 



196 FREDEEICK EKASTUS HYDE 

rugged constitution, his health failed again, and he was obhged 
to give up army life and go abroad for recuperation. 

Returning to this country, he became interested in mining 
enterprises, and in 1866 went out to Denver, Colorado, making 
the trip by stage-coach fi*om Leavenworth, Kansas, along the 
Kansas River and Smoky Hill Branch. At that time danger 
from hostile Indians was still acute, and all such travelers had 
to go armed in self-defense. The next year, as the representa- 
tive of a Baltimore mining company, he crossed the Isthmus of 
Panama and went to Arizona to examine various mining proper- 
ties. On this trip his party, consisting of nine men, was at- 
tacked by Walapai Indians, and foiu" of them were killed. 

After these and other similar entei-prises, Mr. Hyde returned 
to New York and again became a student, in Bellevue Hospital 
Medical College, from which institution he was graduated, with 
the degree of M, D., in 1874. Since that time he has led a quiet 
and somewhat retired life. He has held no pubUc office, and has 
taken small part in political affau's aside from discharging the 
duties of a citizen. He has, however, interested himself much 
in some church and philanthropic enterprises. He has also trav- 
eled extensively with his family in almost all accessible parts of 
the world. 

He was recently elected a trustee of the American Museum of 
Natural History. He is associated with many clubs and other 
bodies, including the Union League, Metropohtan, Church, Rid- 
ing, and American Yacht clubs, the Society of Colonial Wars, 
the Sons of the Revolution, the New York Genealogical Society, 
the Metropohtan Museum of Art, the New York Academy of 
Sciences, the Order of Foreign Wars, the New England Society, 
the New York Historical Society, the Linnsean Society, the New 
York Academy of Medicine, the County Medical Society, and 
the Musical Art Society, of which last he is president. 

Dr. Hyde was married, on March 27, 1869, to Miss Ida Jo- 
sephine Babbitt, daughter of the late B. T. Babbitt. She died 
on January 22, 1890, having borne him seven children. Of 
these, two died in infancy. The others are Elizabeth Alvina, 
Benjamin Talbot Babbitt, Frederick Erastus, Ida Josephine, 
and Mabel LiUia. 



[S^(t 




HENRY BALDWIN HYDE 

WHEN the Rev. Thomas Hooker emigrated from England 
in 1633, he took with him, among other sons of worthy 
famihes, Wilham Hyde. The latter settled first in Newton, Mas- 
sachusetts, but in 163G followed the Rev. Mr. Hooker in his migra- 
tion to Connecticut, where they estahhshed Hartford Colony. 
Wilham Hyde became one of the principal landholders in the 
colony, and was active in all civic and religious affairs. His 
name is on the monument to the original settlers, in the old 
cemetery at Hartford, and several generations of his descendants 
are bmried there. He appears to have possessed the restless 
spirit of the true pioneer, for he removed to Saybrook when it 
was first estahhshed, and afterward to Norwich, where he died 
in 1681. His son Samuel, who accompanied him to Norwich, 
became one of the selectmen of the town. He married a daugh- 
ter of Thomas Lee of Lynn, England, who sailed with his fam- 
ily for the colonies in 1641, but died on the voyage. His wife 
and childi-en settled in Saybrook, Connecticut. 

To Samuel Hyde and his wife, Jane Lee, were born a large 
family of stm-dy sons and daughters. The fom-th son, Thomas 
Hyde, was born m 1673. He was a prosperous farmer, and hved 
to see the eighteenth centiuy more than half completed. He 
married Mary Backus, a daughter of one of the original settlers 
of Norwich. Abner Hyde, their third son, was born in 1706. 
In the next generation was Asa Hyde, born m Norwich in 1742 
and died in 1812. He man-ied Lucy Rowland, and then- son, 
Wilkes Hyde of Catskill, New York, was the ginindfather of the 
subject of this biography. He married Sarah Hazeu, daughter 
of Jacob Hazen of Franklm, Connecticut. In 1805 was born 
Henry Hazen Hyde, who married Lucy Baldwin Beach, a daugh- 

197 



198 HENRY BALDWIN HYDE 

ter of the Rev. James Beach of Winsted, CoBnecticut. Mr. 
Hyde was one of the most successful insurance men of his day, 
and for many years represented the Mutual Life Insiu'ance 
Company of New York as its general manager in New England. 

Henry Baldwin Hyde, the second son of the foregoing, was 
born in Catskill, February 5, 1834. At the age of sixteen he 
came to New York city, and was employed as a clerk by Mer- 
ritt, Ely & Co., merchants, for two years. In 1852 he entered 
the office of the Mutual Life Insurance Company, where he 
remained seven years, first as a clerk and latterly as cashier of 
the company. In March, 1859, Mr. Hyde announced to the 
president, Frederick S. Winston, that he had concluded that 
there was need of a new life-insurance company, organized 
along new hues, and that he had decided to organize such a 
company. He thereupon tendered his resignation, to take effect 
immediately. The Equitable Life Assurance Company was 
incorporated on July 26 of the same year, and the rest of Mr. 
Hyde's active business life was spent in its development and 
interests. Elected at its incorporation vice-president and man- 
ager, he became president in 1874, and so continued until his 
death. 

Mr. Hyde's death, which occurred on May 2, 1899, was from 
heart trouble resulting from inflammatory rheumatism. 

He was a lifelong Republican, and a member of the Union, 
Union League, Lawyers', South Side Sportsmen's, Jekyll Island, 
and Press clubs, the Chamber of Commerce, and the Metropolitan 
Museum of Art. His wife, who was Miss Fitch, survives him; 
also his son, James H. Hyde, who is vice-president of the Equi- 
table, and a daughter, who is the wife of Sidney D. Ripley, trea- 
surer of the Equitable. 




DARWIN R. JAMES 



DARWIN R. JAMES comes of Pui'itan stock on both 
paternal and maternal sides. His ancestors were settled 
at Hingbam, Massacbusetts, as early as 1638, and later genera- 
tions gave members to serve in tbe Frencb and Indian and 
Revolutionary wars. His fatber was Lewis Lyman James, a 
manufacturer and merchant of woolen goods, and bis mother's 
maiden name was Cerintba Wells. He was born at Williams- 
burg, Massacbusetts, on May 14, 1834, and was educated at 
Mount Pleasant Boarding-school, Amherst, Massacbusetts. 

In January, 1850, Mr. James began work for a wholesale 
silk and dress-goods firm on Nassau Street, New York, for fifty 
dollars a year. For eight years be was in that business, with 
three different fii*ms. Then he formed a partnership with 
M. N. Packard, and entered the trade in indigo, spices, and 
East IncUa goods. For foi'ty-one years that firm, with one 
change of name, has pursued its honorable and profitable way, 
a fine example of American commercial probity and success. In 
the interest of his firm Mr. James has traveled extensively in 
the Philippines, India, and other remote lands, as weU as in 
all parts of the United States. 

Early in life Mr. James became interested in politics. His 
first vote was cast for Fremont and Dayton, and he has ever 
since been a conspicuous member of the Republican party. In 
the part of Brooklyn where be has made his home for manj^ 
years, be has been an important factor in the councils of the 
party, and for six years was president of his ward association. 
He has, however, held no pubhc office, though often urged to 
do so, save those of Park Commissioner in Brooklyn for six 
years, Representative in Congress for four years, and member 

199 



200 DAEWIN B. JAMES 

and chairman of the United States Board of Indian Conunis- 
sioners. He was appointed, also, a member of the commission 
named by Groveruor Black, in 1898, for the investigation of the 
canal administration of this State. 

Mr. James's career in Congress was conspicuous and impor- 
tant. He was the recognized leader of the forces of honest 
money, and succeeded in defeating the Bland Free-coinage Bill, 
and in securing the redemption and retirement of the "trade 
dollars." He also organized a great hterary bureau, with head- 
quarters in New York, which sent out vast quantities of sound- 
money literature to voters throughout the country. He effected 
the transfer of public land in Brooklyn for the estabhshment 
of the Wallabout Market, and was one of the organizers of the 
anti-monopoly movement in this State, as a result of which the 
Board of Railroad Commissioners was established. 

For twenty-four years Mr. James has been connected with the 
Board of Trade and Transportation of New York, being its 
secretary eighteen years and president nearly six years. He 
is officially connected with numerous financial concerns, such 
as the East Brooklyn Savings Bank, of which he has been fif- 
teen years secretary and fifteen years president, without salary, 
the Nassau Trust Company, the Franklin Trust Company, 
the Franklin Safe Deposit Company, the Brooklyn Real Estate 
Exchange, the Brooklyn Edison Electric Illuminating Com- 
pany, etc. He is also identified with the Brooklyn Bureau 
of Charities, the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions, the 
Church Extension Committee of the Brooklyn Presbytery, and 
numerous other religious, educational, and benevolent enter- 
prises. For forty-six years he has been actively interested in a 
mission Sunday-school, most of the time as superintendent. 
He is a large owner of real estate in Brooklyn, and has devoted 
much attention to the sanitary and other interests of that city. 

Mr. James was married, in 1858, to Miss Mary Ellen Fairchild 
of Stockbridge, Massachusetts, a woman of marked ability and 
force of character, who has been and is prominent in the work of 
the Presbyterian Church, the Woman's National Sabbath League, 
and the Brooklyn City Mission and Tract Society. Mr. James is 
a member of the Union League Club of Brooklyn, and was 
formerly a member of the Oxford and Brooklyn clubs. 






WALTER S. JOHNSTON 



WILLIAM JOHNSTON, the father of the subject of this 
sketch, was bom iu Ireland, in the early part of the cen- 
tury, and while a very young child came with his parents to the 
western continent. They settled first in St. John's, Newfound- 
land, where William received his education and began the study 
of his profession, which was that of an architect. Removing to 
Philadelphia, he completed his studies and established himself 
in his profession. He became an American citizen, and married 
an American wife. Miss Mary Tyndal. She was a native of 
Delaware, ai\d came of a good family, dating back to ante-Revo- 
lutionary days. 

Their son, Walter S. Johnston, was bom in Philadelphia, on 
January 13, 1843. The circumstances of his parents were ample 
enough to admit of a thorough education, and, after a course in 
a private school, he entered college, was graduated therefrom, and 
took up the study of law. When he was eighteen years of age, 
however, the Civil War was declared, and, like so many other 
youthful patriots, he thi'ew down his books to obey the first call 
to arms. He enlisted on April 18, 1861, less than a week after 
Fort Sumter was fired i;pon, and served imtil the troops were 
mustered out in July, 1865. He enlisted as a private, but was 
promoted rapidly, and was a captain of infantry before he was 
twenty-two. He took part in the battles of Antietam, Chicka- 
mauga, Cold Harbor, the siege of Petersburg, and the numerous 
battles thereabout, in one of which he was wounded, and wit- 
nessed the surrender of General Lee. 

Mr. Johnston returned to Philadelphia soon after the muster- 
ing out of the troops, and applied himself to the study of law 
again, being still intent upon making that his profession. After 



201 



202 WALTEB S. JOHNSTON 

pursuing his studies to some extent, lie removed to the West and 
settled in Missouri. There he completed his studies and was 
admitted to the bar. He entered upon the general practice of 
his profession, and met with a gratifying degree of success. His 
law partner, it is of interest to note, was the colonel of his old 
regiment in the Federal Ai-my. 

In the course of his practice Mr. Johnston had frequently to 
do with the affairs of financial institutions and large business 
corporations, and to these he paid increasing attention. Within 
a few years he became an authority upon matters of finance, and 
thus, when, in 1877, the National Bank of the State of Missouri 
fell into straits, he was appointed receiver of it. That bank was 
one of the largest financial institutions in the West, and the task 
of straightening out its affairs was no light one. But he did it 
so successfully that when the Marine National Bank of New 
York went down in the crash of 1884, he was sent for and ap- 
pointed its receiver, and thereafter resided in New York. In 
January, 1898, he was elected president of the American Surety 
Company, a position which he occupied for over a year. In 
February, 1899, he resigned this office, remaining as first vice- 
president, and accepted the presidency of the State Trust Com- 
pany. He has unofficial connections with other large financial 
companies. 

Mr. Johnston has never aspired to any public offices, and, 
beyond the interest felt by every patriotic citizen, has taken no 
active part in political affairs, his tastes not inclining in that 
direction. His business interests occupy the most of his time, 
and to them he devotes his best energies. 

His favorite diversion is yachting, and he is a member of the 
New York and Larchmont Yacht clubs. He is also a member 
of the Union, the Union League, the Army and Navy, and the 
Metropohtan clubs. Mr. Johnston is an unmarried man. 




JAMES ROBERT KEENE 



WALL STREET takes unto itself with equal welcome men 
from all lands and all walks of life. Some are foreign, 
some native-born ; some have inherited fortune, some have fought 
their way up from poverty. And no man can tell until the event 
is seen who shall prosper, this one or that. Among the great 
and successful speculators of the Street few, if any, have been 
better known than the subject of this sketch, nor have any had 
more marked fluctuations of fortune, nor have there been many 
whose antecedents pointed less toward such a career than did 
his. The sou of a cautious and conservative English merchant, 
he became one of the most daring of American speculators. 
Once a poor man earning meager daily wages by menial work, 
he became one of the money kings of the richest city in the 
Western world. It is a partly typical and partly unique career. 
James Robert Keene was bom in London, England, in 1838, 
the son of a wealthy merchant, and was educated at a private 
school in Lincolnshire and in a preparatory school of Trinity 
College, Dublin. Before he could enter the college, however, 
his father met \Wth serious business reverses, and came to 
America with his family. The first enthusiasm over the dis- 
covery of gold in California had not yet begun to wane, and to 
that State the family proceeded, settling at Shasta in 1852. 
There the boy of fourteen was compelled to reckon his schooling 
finished with a good English education and some Latin and 
French, and to go to work for his own living. His first occupa- 
tion was to take care of the horses at Eort Reading, and it may 
well be supposed that he there acquired that love of those ani- 
mals which has been so marked a characteristic of his later life. 
But in three months he had earned and saved enough to buy a 



203 



204: JAMES KOBEBT KEENE 

miner's outfit, and with it on his hack he set forth to seek 
" pay dirt." 

His success was at first indifferent. He did some mining, 
milUng, freighting, and stock-raising, and then was editor of a 
newspaper for two years. In none of these pursuits did he find 
the way to fortime. Then he left Cahfornia and went to Nevada, 
soon after the discovery of the famous Comstock lode. There 
he " struck it rich." He bought and sold mining property until 
he had money enough to go to San Francisco and begin the 
career of a stock speculator. In a few months he had more than 
a hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars clear. Then he got 
married, his wife being Sara Daingerfield, daughter of Colonel 
Daingerfield of Virginia, and sister of Judge Daingerfield of Cali- 
fornia. He was now, he thought, on the sure road to foi'tune. 
But there was a sharp turn in the road. A crash in mining 
stocks came, and he was in a day made all but penniless. 

With indomitable spirit he began again, dealing in stocks in 
a small way. After a time he got in with Senator C. N. Felton, 
and transacted much business for him as his broker. When Mr. 
Felton became Assistant United States Treasurer he sold his seat 
in the Stock Exchange to Mr. Keene, although the latter did not 
have enough money to pay for it in cash. But once in the Ex- 
change, Mr. Keene rose rapidly to wealth and prominence. He 
soon became president of the Exchange. By shrewd purchases 
of stock in the Bonanza mines on the Comstock lode he reahzed 
a fortune of at least six million doUars. When the Bank of 
California failed, he was one of the four contributors of one 
million dollars cash to the guaranty fund of eight milUon dol- 
lars required to secure depositors against loss and to enable the 
bank to continue business. Through his influence the Stock 
Exchange was led to contribute five hundred thousand dollars, 
and individual members of it nearly as much more. Thus the 
bank was saved, and the whole Pacific coast saved from a 
disastrous blow. 

In the spring of 1877 Mr. Keene set out for Europe for rest 
and restoration of his health. Reaching New York, he foimd 
the stock market depressed and demoralized. Postponing his 
trip abroad, he entered Wall Street and began buying stocks 
right and left. The market improved ; prices went up ; and 



JAMES EGBERT KEENE 205 

in the autnmn of 1879 he was able to sell out his holdings and 
sail for Eiu-ope nine milhon dollars richer than when he came 
to New York. 

Since his return from that European trip Mr. Keene has made 
his home in or near New York. He has taken part m many im- 
portant operations in Wall Street, and has had varied fortunes 
there. At times he has seemed on the verge of entire disaster ; 
but his steady nerve, his thorough knowledge of the market, 
and his indomitable will have carried him through and made 
him in the long run a gainer of great profits. 

As one of the founders and steward of the Jockey Club, Mr. 
Keene has been conspicuously identified with horse-racing, per- 
haps as conspicuously and intimately as any man of his time. 
His horse "Foxhall" will be especially remembered as the winner 
of two or thi'ee great races in England and France. He is also a 
member of the Rockaway Hunt Club, to the interests of which 
he has paid much attention. In the city he belongs to the 
Racquet Club. His home is at Cedarhurst, on Long Island. 
His childi-en are Foxhall Parker Keene, who married Miss 
Lawrence of Bayside, Long Island, and Jessie Harwar Keene, 
now the wife of Talbot I. Taylor of Baltimore. 




ELIJAH ROBINSON KENNEDY 

ELIJAH ROBINSON KENNEDY was bom in Hartford, 
Connecticut. The family had come early to that colony, 
being among the first settlers of Windham, where the town of 
Hampton was first called Kennedy. The hst of Mr. Kennedy's 
ancestors includes the names of Governor WiUiam Bradford, 
Lieutenant Jonathan Rudd, Major John Mason, the Reverend 
James Fitch, Colonel Ehjah Robinson of the Revolutionary 
War, Major Elijah Robinson of the War of 1812 (father and son, 
lineal descendants of Pastor John Robinson of the Pilgrims), 
Daniel Cannady of Salem, and Leonard Kennedy of Hartford. 
When he was but an infant his family moved to the far West of 
that period, and settled in Milwaukee. Here he received his 
education in the public schools, including the then renowned 
Seventh Ward High School, and at Milwaukee University. The 
memory of the university is perpetuated by an association of 
which Mr. Kennedy is president. Just before the Civil War the 
family removed to MarysviUe, Cahfornia. During this period 
young Kennedy began the study of law, but was compelled to 
abandon his cherished preference for a professional career. Sub- 
sequently his parents returned to Hartford, and he found em- 
ployment in a wholesale dry-goods store in New York city, shortly 
before the close of the war. His advancement in business was 
rapid, and in a few years he became a partner in a prosperous 
jobbing house. Soon after, however, he chose to retire from 
mercantile business, and about twenty-five years ago he entered 
into partnership with Samuel R. Weed in the insurance business. 
The firm of Weed & Kennedy is perhaps more strongly equipped 
than any similar concern in the world. It embraces marine, 
casualty, Uability, and other departments, and has the United 

206 



ELIJAH BOBINSON KENNEDY 207 

States management of six European fire-insui-ance companies. 
Mr. Kennedy lias served on several of tlie most important com- 
mittees of the New York Board of Fire Underwriters, and was 
twice president of the board. His most influential and distin- 
guished work was done while he was chairman of the committee 
that prepared the standard fire-insurance policy of New York 
State, which, with little or no change, has been generally 
adopted thi-oughout the entire country. He has always concen- 
trated his energies, and has, therefore, refused all offers of dii-ec- 
torships in banks, trust companies, and similar institutions. But 
he does not withhold his support from movements for amelio- 
rating the conditions of society, and he is a trustee of the Brook- 
lyn Institute of Arts and Sciences, a regent of the Long Island 
College Hospital, a director of the New England Society in 
Brooklyn, and president of the National Society to Erect a 
Monument to the Prison-Ship Martyrs of the Revolution. He is 
also a member of the New York Chamber of Commerce, the 
Society of Mayflower Descendants, the Society of Colonial Wars, 
the Sons of the Revolution, and the Order of Free and Accepted 
Masons. He was for many years active in politics, frequently 
exercising considerable influence on nominations ; and there is no 
exciting campaign when his voice is not heard in advocacy of 
the principles of the Republican party. He was never a can- 
didate, except in 1877, when, with his consent, he was proposed 
for Consul-Geueral to London. President Hayes stated to one 
of his friends that Mr. Kennedy's appointment " was determined 
on "; but Greneral Grrant afterward made such a strong personal 
appeal for the retention of General Badeau that the administra- 
tion could not disregard it, and no change was made in the incum- 
bency of the London place. Mr. Kennedy served two terms as 
park commissioner in Brooklyn. During his terms of office 
several of the most important and diu'able improvements to 
Prospect Park were begun. He was at this time most instru- 
mental in defeating a corrupt scheme for erecting a costly soldiers' 
monument in front of the Brooklyn City Hall. He proposed as 
an alternative a memorial arch at the entrance to Prospect Park, 
a proposal which was ultimately adopted. But his most im- 
portant and memorable pulilic service was done in connection 
with the Shore Road. The wisdom of converting the country 



208 ELIJAH BOBINSON KENNEDY 

road extending along the shore of the bay and the Narrows from 
Bay Ridge Avenue to Fort Hamilton into a public pleasure 
drive had often been mentioned, but the project that finally took 
shape was entirely the conception of Mr. Kennedy, and it was 
due solely to his energetic and persistent labors that acts of 
legislation were obtained creating a commission to design a 
magnificent parkway, and providing several milhons of dollars 
for the purchase of the requisite property and for beginnmg 
its development .and improvement. He was president of the 
commission that perfected the plans for the improvement, and 
that had the vast work well estabhshed before the absorption of 
the city of Brooklyn in the city of New York. 

Mr. Kennedy has traveled over much of his own country, has 
visited Mexico and Central America, and has made several 
extensive tours in Europe, where he has a large circle of 
acquaintances in several countries. He is an enthusiastic pho- 
tographer, and after a foreign trip is accustomed to lecture, 
using many of his views in lantern-slides. His purpose origi- 
nally was thus to entertain his friends at home ; but people inter- 
ested in philanthropic societies have insisted on his lecturing for 
their benefit, and he declares that on his terms he is in great 
demand. " I get nothing," he says, " and pay for my own cab." 
Although a member of several popular clubs in New York and 
Brooklyn, he is an infi-equent visitor to any of them. He has a 
house at Southampton, Long Island, and his home in Brooklyn, 
directly opposite Prospect Park, is to him a more attractive spot 
than any club, while the members of his family are his most 
congenial associates. His library comprises nearly five thousand 
volumes, and is constantly growing. Although a student as weU 
as a reader, he seldom writes for publication, but in 1897 he pre- 
pared a volume of biography of his friend the late Greneral John 
B. Woodward. Mr. Kennedy is a high-minded man, incapable 
of envy or revenge, fond of the society of the wise, and extremely 
generous and hospitable. Although past fifty years of age, his 
cheerful disposition and his robust health have preserved the 
ardor and enthusiasm of his youth quite imimpaired. 



HENRY SCANLAN KERR 



THE Kerr family is of English origin, and was planted in this 
country early in this century. The Seanlan family came 
from Wickf ord, Ireland, and is descended from the Power family, 
of which Tyrone Power, the actor, and Sir William Tyrone 
Power, M. P., were members. WiUiam H. KeiT, State prosecu- 
tor of Ohio, and Harriet Ellen Seanlan of Montreal, Canada, 
were married and settled in Cincinnati. There, on September 
4, 1866, their son, Henry Seanlan KeiT, was born. 

He was first sent to the public schools of Cincinnati, and to 
Chickering Institute, but was so wild and self-willed that it was 
impossible to get him to attend to his studies. So he was sent 
to Montgomery Bell Academy, a part of the University of Nash- 
ville, Tennessee, to see if anything could be done with him 
there. At first he was as heedless of study as ever. But one 
day he quarreled with the boy who stood at the head of the 
class, made up liis mind to beat him in scholarship, and, to the 
amazement of all, did so at the next examination. Thereafter he 
stood at the head of the school in scholarship, and was gradu- 
ated, valedictorian of his class, in 1883, carrying off the final prize 
and highest honors. He was also as conspicuous in athletics as 
in scholarship. 

After some experience in a Cincinnati insurance office and on 
a Louisiana sugar plantation, he came to New York in Septem- 
ber, 1885, and entered the office of his uncle, Charles T. Wing 
of Wall Street, then one of the foremost dealers in raih-oad bonds. 
There he learned the business of banking and brokerage. A few 
years later Mr. Wing died, and then Mr. Kerr thought he should 
be taken into the firm. He told his employers, the new firm, 
that if he were not admitted he would set up an office of his 



209 



210 HENRY SCANLAN KERR 

own. They told him to go ahead. Thereupon he formed a 
partnership with Henry S. Redmond, a young Wall Street man, 
and a special partnership with Mr. Grilbert M. Plympton, a 
lawyer and capitahst. Mr. Plympton was eventually taken into 
full partnership, and Thomas A. Gardiner was also admitted. 
Mr. Kerr kept his own counsel until the new firm-name was 
being painted on the door of No. 41 Wall Street, on May 1, 1892. 

The success of the firm from the start was remarkable. 
Honest, conservative, and intelligent effort, coupled with ex- 
traordinary energy, soon put the house among the foremost in 
WaU Street, and it has been increasing in wealth and importance 
each year. It has been declared to do the largest individual 
business in investment securities in Wall Street, and it has the 
enviable record of never having sold a security which has later 
defaulted on its interest. The force of this remark is evident 
when it is estimated that the house has distributed among over 
ten thousand investors over one hundred and fifty million dollars 
of seciirities. In order to accomplish this end, the house was one 
of the first to institute a department for the thorough examina- 
tion of properties in the securities of which the house deals, so 
that the name of the house is now a trade-mark of standard 
value. The house has taken active part in most of the large 
financial transactions carried through in recent years, including 
reorganizations, refunding schemes, government and railroad 
bond issues, too numerous to mention, being associated therein 
with aU the great WaU Street banking-houses. Mr. Kerr is 
also senior member of the house of Graham, Kerr & Co., of 
Philadelphia. 

Mr. Kerr enlisted as a private in Troop A, the crack New 
York cavalry organization, in 1890, and was honorably discharged 
as first sergeant in 1895, after admirable service in the Brooklyn 
and Buffalo strike riots, and elsewhere. He was married, in 
1895, to Miss Olive Grace, daughter of John W. Grace of New 
York. They have one son. 

He is a member of the Chamber of Commerce, and the Union, 
the Union League, Racquet and Tennis, Country, and New York 
Yacht clubs, the Ohio Society, and the Down-Town Association. 




\ 





'fVlyi^y^ ^^^UjjU-ai2jy 



ROBERT JACKSON KIMBALL 



ROBERT JACKSON KIMBALL, banker, of Randolph, Ver- 
mont, and New York city, was bom at Randolph, Vermont, 
on February 16, 1836. His ancestors were English, and emigrated 
to this coimtry in 1634. He is in the eighth generation from 
Richard Kimball, who came over in the ship Elizabeth, and set- 
tled at Watertown, Massachusetts, and thence removed to Ips- 
wich, where the remainder of his hf e was spent. The direct line 
of descent from Richard Kimball was thi'ough John Kimball, 
Richard Kimball II, Richard Kimball III, John Kimball II, 
Richard Kimball IV, and Hiram Kimball, to the subject of this 
sketch. Mr. Kimball's great-grandfather, John Kimball II, and 
grandfather, Richard Kimball IV, both served in the Revolution- 
ary War in Colonel Samuel B. Webb's Third Connecticut Regi- 
ment. 

Mr. Kimball's grandfather removed from Pomfret, Connecti- 
cut, to Randolph, Vermont, about the year 1795, and in that 
town the grandfather, father, and son have for more than one 
hundi'ed years continuously maintained a family home. 

Educated in the common schools and the West Randolph 
Academy, Mr. Kimball decided upon a business career, and en- 
tered upon it in early life. He hved in his native State until 
after he had attained his majority, his occupations including tele- 
graphic and express service on the railroads of Vermont. He 
engaged in the business of a banker at Toronto, Canada, in 1862, 
and two years later was appointed United States consul at that 
place. Toronto was then the headquarters of a number of 
prominent refugees from the Southern States, who were striving 
to use Canada as a base of operations in the interest of the Con- 
federacy and against the United States. He was the means of 



2U 



212 ROBERT JACKSON KIMBALL 

communicating important information to the United States gov- 
ernment concerning the manufacture of cannon and the fitting 
out of hostile expeditions on Lake Erie and elsewhere. He also 
gave information that led to the capture of Robert Cobb Ken- 
nedy, the leader of the gang which, in November, 1864, set fii-e 
to ten hotels and other crowded buildings in New York city, 
and attempted to destroy as much of the city as possible, regard- 
less of the loss of life. Fortunately the fires were discovered, 
and the men failed in their purpose and fled to Canada. In his 
official duties as consul, Mr. Kimball met Kennedy, recognized 
him by a photograph, and notified the authorities, so that when 
the criminal returned to the United States he was captured, 
taken to Fort Lafayette in New York harbor, tried for violating 
the rules of war and acting as a spy, convicted, and hanged. 

At the end of the war, in 1865, Mr. Kimball came to New 
York city and established a banking house, which still continues, 
under the firm-name of R. J. Kimball & Co. The course of this 
firm has been generally most successful. In 1872, owing to a 
great dechne in value of securities in the panic which character- 
ized that year, he was unable to meet all demands upon him, 
and was compelled accordingly to suspend payments to his 
creditors. Within forty-eight hours, however, he settled with 
his creditors by payment of twenty-five cents on the dollar, 
receiving a discharge from all further obligations, and was thus 
enabled to resume business. In 1881 he voluntarily paid the 
other seventy-five per cent, of his obligations, together with 
interest thereon at six per cent., the whole amounting to many 
thousands of dollars. 

Mr. Kimball became, in January, 1867, a member of the Open 
Board of Brokers, which was, in May, 1869, consolidated with 
the New York Stock Exchange, whereupon he became a member 
of the latter organization. 

While having a business in New York, on the death of his 
father, in 1865, Mr. Eamball assumed the affairs of the home in 
Vermont, where he spent more or less of his time every year. 
He resumed his citizenship in his native town in 1886, and built 
a new residence. 

He was an aide-de-camp on the staff of Governor Dillingham 
of Vermont, with the rank of colonel, from 1888 to 1890. He 



ROBEBT JACKSON KIMBALL 213 

represented the town of Randolph in the Legislature of 1890-91, 
serving on the standing committees on ways and means and on 
banks, and on a special joint committee on the World's Colum- 
bian Exposition. In 1899 he was elected trustee of the University 
of Vermont and Agricultural College, to fill the vacancy caused 
by the death of the late Senator Justin S. Morrill. Mr. Kimball 
has shown his public spirit and generosity in many ways in dif- 
ferent enterprises in his native town. He has there, as already 
stated, erected a new residence in lieu of the old family home- 
stead, and has made it a conspicuously attractive house, and a 
worthy monument of taste. He also maintains a home in 
Brooklyn, New York, where he has a handsome house replete 
with evidences of culture and refinement. 

Mr. Kimball has long been prominently connected, as trustee, 
with various important religious, charitable, and other institu- 
tions in Brooklj-n, including the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and 
Sciences and the People's Trust Company. In September, 1898, 
he was elected president of the Iowa Central Railway Company. 

In both public and private life he stands high in the regard of 
all who know him as a citizen and a man. He was united in 
marriage with Martha L., daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Charles A. 
Morse, in 1863. Their children are two daughters, Clara Louise 
and Annie Laura, and one son, W. Eugene Kimball. The last- 
named was gi-aduated at Amherst College in 1896, and at once 
started in the banking business with his father, and was admitted 
to the fii'm of R. J. KimbaU & Co. in January, 1898. 




WILLIAM F. KING 



THE stories of mercantile careers are greatly varied. There 
are some men who try one occupation after another in succes- 
sion, until at last they hit upon the one for which they seem 
fitted and in which they achieve success. There are those who, 
sticking consistently to the one calling, remove from one estab- 
hshment or firm to another, perhaps many times, before reaching 
the place in which then- ultimate achievements are made. There 
are also those, whose careers are by no means the least interest- 
ing, who at the beginning enter not only the calling but the 
individual house in which their entire business course is to be 
run. Such last has been the record of the well-known president 
of the Merchants' Association of New York. 

William F. King, who was bom in New York city on Decem- 
ber 27, 1850, is the son of Charles King, a man of German birth, 
who had a successful career in New York as a grocer, and who, 
having retired from active business, died in August, 1899. Mr. 
King's mother, w^hose name before her marriage was Ella Elliott, 
was bom in Ireland. Mr. King was educated in Pubhc School 
No. 3, in New York city, and was destined from the first for a 
mercantile career. 

On leaving school, while yet in boyhood, he entered, in 1866, 
the employment of the well-known firm of Calhoun, Robbins & 
Co. of New York, importers of and wholesale dealers in fancy 
goods and notions. His first place was, of course, a subordinate 
one. But he quickly manifested an aptitude for the work, and 
won the favors of his employers. The details of the business 
were mastered by him, one by one, and promotions consequently 
came to him from time to time. Thus he rose, step by step, 
through all the ranks, from that of errand boy, to be, as he is at 

214 








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WILLIAM F. KING 215 

the present time, a partner in the firm. Such, in brief, is the 
story of his business career. 

In the course of his active and successful career Mr. King has 
found no time, or felt no inclination, to engage in political affairs 
beyond discharging the duties of a citizen. He has, however, 
o-iven much time and labor to various non-political undertakings 
for the promotion of commercial interests and for the conserva- 
tion of the public weKare. The beneficent works of the Mer- 
chants' Association, in attracting trade to New York, in investi- 
gating the water-supply needs of the city, and in other directions, 
are fresh in the pubhc mind. In his capacity as president of the 
association Mr. King has been foremost and most efficient in 

these. 

He has not, either, sought other business relationships apart 
from the firm with which he has so long been identified. He has, 
indeed, avoided all directorships and trusteeships in other corpo- 
rations, especially during his official connection with the Mer- 
chants' Association. 

Besides being president of the Merchants' Association, Mr. King 
is a member of the Chamber of Commerce of the State of New 
York, the New York Board of Trade and Transportation, the 
New York ConsoHdated Exchange, the St. John's Guild, the 
Metropolitan Museum of Art, the American Museum of Natui-al 
History, the Fine Arts Society, the Zoological Gardens, and the 
Merchants', City, New York Athletic, Colonial, and National Arts 

clubs. 

Mr. King was married, in 1883, to Miss Martha Kneeland 
Danolds, a native of Albion, New York. Four children have been 
born to them. Of these, two, Wilham F. and Sarah Kneeland, 
are now deceased. The others, Martha ElUott and Hildegaarde, 
are living. 




DARWIN PEARL KINGSLEY 

IN the closing years of the seventeenth century, three brothers, 
named Eangsley, came from England and settled, one in 
Maine, one in Massachusetts, and one in Connecticut. Each 
of these was the founder of a worthy Une of American de- 
scendants. The subject of the present sketch belongs to the 
Massachusetts family, founded by the second of three brothers. 
Four generations ago one of the sons of that branch of the 
family removed from Massachusetts, where he had been bom 
in 1765, to Bennington, Vermont, and his five sons all settled 
in theu" turn in northern Vermont. One of these, Nathan 
Kingsley, made his home in Grand Isle Coimty, Vermont, and 
there his descendants have chiefly remained down to the present 
time. In the last generation Hu'am Pearl Kingsley was a pros- 
perous farmer at Albui-g, Vermont. He was a leading citizen, a 
member of the Vermont Legislature, and generally respected for 
his strict probity. He married Miss Ceha P. La Due, of French 
ancestry, who is now living in St. Albans, Vermont. 

The son of this couple, Darwin Pearl Kingsley, was bom at 
Alburg, on May 5, 1857. He was fitted for college at Barre 
Academy, Barre, Vermont, and in 1877 was matriculated at the 
University of Vermont, at Burlington. Four years later he was 
graduated with the degree of A. B., and in 1884 he received the 
advanced degree of A. M. It should be added that his student 
life was interspersed with farm work, school-teaching, news- 
paper work, etc., to pay his way. At college he "boarded him- 
self" and rang the college bell in payment of fees. Thus he 
worked his own way through the academy and university. He 
got a good education, and he learned at the same time to appre- 
ciate the value of it from its cost. 

216 



DAEWIN PEAKL KINGSLEY 217 

On leaving the university in 1881, he went to Colorado, and 
fliat fall became a school-teacher for a year. He was a pio- 
neer in opening western Colorado to settlement, after the re- 
moval of the Ute Indians. In 1883 he became editor of the 
Grand Junction (Colorado) " News." The next year he was one 
of Colorado's delegates to the National Repubhcan Convention. 
His work as an editor and his ability as a pubhc speaker quickly 
made him prominent in Colorado politics, and in 1886 he was 
elected State Auditor and Insurance Commissioner on the Re- 
publican ticket. 

The last-named ofi&ce inchned Mr. Kingsley toward the calhng 
ill which he is now successfully engaged. At the close of his 
term he left Colorado and returned to the East. He first settled 
in the State which, as a colony, had been the home of his earliest 
American ancestor, and entered the service of the New York 
Life Insurance Company in its Boston office. That was in 1889. 
His aptness for the work and his success in execution of it 
speedily marked him for promotion. In 1892 he was called to 
New York, and was made superintendent of agencies at the 
home office of the company. Six years later he was elected a 
trustee and third vice-president of the company, in which places 
he remains. 

Mr. Kingsley is a member of the Union League Club, the 
University Club, the Merchants' Club, the St. Andrew's GoK 
Club, the Ardsley Casino Club, and the New England Society of 
New York. He is also a trustee of the University of Vermont. 

Mr. Kingsley has been twice married. His first wife was 
Mary M. Mitchell, whom he married at Milton, Vermont, in 
June, 1884. She died at Brookhne, Massachusetts, in August, 1890, 
leaving him one son, Walton Pearl Kingsley. He was mamed 
the second time in New York, on December 3, 1895, his wife 
being Josephine McCall, daughter of the Hon. John A. McCall, 
president of the New York Life Insurance Company. Two 
children have been bom to him in his second marriage : Hope 
Kingsley, and Darwin Pearl Kingsley, Jr. 



PERCIVAL KUHNE 

THE Kiihne family has for many generations been conspicu- 
ous among the landed proprietors of Magdeburg, Germany, 
and the vicinity of that historic city. Among its members, in 
the early part of this century, was Johann Friedrich Kiihne, who 
was an accomplished musician and one of the most noted clarionet- 
players of his day. He was an associate of Richard Wagner and 
of the other great German musicians, though he practised the 
art not as a profession, but merely as a means of personal plea- 
sure. His son, Frederick Kiihne, born at Magdeburg in 1824, 
after founding the banking-house of Knauth, Nachod & Kiihne 
in New York, was made the consul-general of all the German 
states except Prussia. He filled that important place with 
eminent success for more than sixteen years preceding the forma- 
tion of the German Empire in 1871, and then retired with many 
decorations of distinction and knighthood. He founded the 
well-known New York banking-house of Knauth, Nachod & 
Kiihne, which to-day occupies high rank in the financial world. 
He married Miss Ellen Josephine Miller, a descendant of an old 
distinguished English family. 

The second son of Frederick and Ellen Josephine Kiihne was 
bom in this city on April 6, 1861, and was named Percival 
Kiihne. He was educated in the city schools, and in the College 
of the City of New York, and then for several years completed 
his education at Leipsic, Germany. 

It was Mr. Kiihne's intention to follow his father's vocation as 
a banker. Accordingly, upon his return to this country from 
his studies at Leipsic, he entered the banking-house of Knauth, 
Nachod & Kiihne, in a subordinate capacity, and devoted his at- 
tention to a thorough mastery of the details of the business. 

218 




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PERCIVAL KiJHNE 219 

His natural aptitude for financial affairs and his careful scholas- 
tic training and mental discipline made his progress sure but by 
no means slow. He was promoted from rank to rank, and 
eventually became a partner in the fii-m. The elder Mr. Kiihne 
died in Paris, in April, 1890, and thereupon his son succeeded to 
his full interest in the firm. 

Mr. Kiihne has paid as a member of the firm the same inces- 
sant and conscientious attention to the details of business that 
he paid when he was a subordinate learning the business. He 
has given to it hkewise the benefit of his admirable judgment 
and foresight, and his unwavering integrity, thus amply sustain- 
ing the estabhshed reputation of the house for probity and suc- 
cess. But his business activities have not by any means been 
confined to the counting-room. His high standing as a banker 
has caused him to be eagerly sought after by other financiers, to 
lend strength and judgment to their enterprises. Thus he be- 
came one of the organizers and is now a trustee of the Colonial 
Trust Company. He is a trustee and a member of the finance 
committee of the Citizens' Savings Bank. He is also a trus- 
tee of the Lincoln Safe Deposit Company and of the Colonial 
Safe Deposit Company. Nor has he confined himself to purely 
financial affairs. His interest has extended to new inventions 
and manufactures. He became identified with the Pintsch Light- 
ing Company, as director and secretary of that corporation, which 
was later amalgamated with the Safety Car Heating and Light- 
ing Company. He is also a director and vice-president of the 
Regina Music Box Company. 

Mr. Kuhne has held no political office, and has sought none, 
contenting himself pohtieally with the discharge of the duties of 
an intelhgent and local private citizen. 

Mr. Kiihne is a member of the Union, Metropolitan, Union 
League, and Calumet clubs, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 
the New York Botanical Garden, the New York Zoological 
Crarden, Holland Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons, and the 
Seventh Regiment Veteran Association. He was married, on 
January 31, 1893, to Miss Lillian Middleton Kerr, daughter of the 
late Hamilton B. Kerr of New York. They have no children. 



JOHN CAMPBELL LATHAM 



JOHN CAMPBELL LATHAM, the thii-d of that name— his 
father and grandfather having borne it before him, — is a 
Kentuckian by birth, but by ancestry a Virginian of Virginians 
on both sides of the family. The first of the Lathams in this 
country was James Latham, who came over from England and 
settled in Culpeper County, Virginia, in early colonial times. 
From him the hue of descent has run unbroken down to the 
subject of this sketch, Dm-ing the closing years of the last cen- 
tury a great tide of migration set westward from Virginia to 
what is now the State of Kentucky, and among the foremost in 
that movement were some of the Lathams, including the direct 
ancestors of our subject. To the development of Kentucky they 
gave the same devotion and efficiency that earher generations 
of the same family had given to the upbuilding of the Old 
Dominion. 

On the maternal side, also, Mr. Latham is of pure cavaUer 
ancestry, his mother's family having been among the earhest 
colonists of Virginia. Two generations back. Dr. David Glass 
of Richmond, Virginia, was one of the foremost physicians and 
surgeons in the country. He temporarily forsook his profession 
to engage in the "War of 1812, and as a patriotic officer of unerr- 
ing skill and unfaiUng courage he distinguished himself as 
greatly upon the field of battle as in the healing art of medicine. 
Dr. Glass's daughter Virginia became the wife of the second 
John Campbell Latham. The latter was one of the foremost 
citizens of Hopkinsville, Kentucky. He is described as having 
been a man of affairs in the highest and best sense of the term. 
Sound judgment, business abihty, and unimpeachable character 
assured him great success in his undertakings, and fitted him 



220 




C36^ e «. 



JOHN CAMPBELL LATHAM 221 

well for the maBy places of trust to wluch he was called by the 
lu-gent choice of his fellow-citizens. 

To this latter couple was born the subject of this sketch, John 
Campbell Latham III, at Hopkinsville, Christian County, Ken- 
tucky, on October 22, 1844. He was well instructed in primary 
and secondary schools, and was just about to enter the Univer- 
sity of Virginia when the Civil War broke out. At the first call 
to arms he threw down his books and enlisted iu the Confederate 
forces. He did not once leave the field, even on furlough, until 
Lee surrendered at Appomattox. From November, 1862, until 
the suiTender, he served on General Beauregard's staff in va- 
rious capacities of closest confidence with that commander. 

At the close of the war he returned to Kentucky. His first 
venture was the estabhshment of a dry-goods firm in Hopkinsville, 
which business he conducted successfully for three years. In 
1870 he closed out his Kentucky interests and came to New 
York. Having a decided partiality for finances, he went at once 
into WaU Street. In 1871 he founded the now widely known 
banking-house of Latham, Alexander & Co., which has survived 
the varying fortunes of Wall Street for more than a quarter of a 
century without a change of name. Besides general banking, the 
firm has for years done a large cotton commission and invest- 
ment business. 

To Mr. Latham's indefatigable energy and unvarying integrity 
must be credited the excellent reputation and signal success of 
the house over which he has presided. His whole life is devoted 
to business and to his home. Neither social clubs nor political 
organizations have any attraction for him. He has always stu- 
diously shunned pubUc office, even to the extent of avoiding 
official connection with any and all corporations. 

He has done much for the material advancement of his native 
town, and takes a great pride in its prosperity. In 1887 he 
erected in Hopkinsville a magnificent monument to the memory 
of the unknown Confederate dead who were buried there. It is 
one of the handsomest memorials of the kind iu the South, and 
weU bespeaks the donor's reverence for his dead comrades-at- 
arms, who gave their hves for the cause they beheved to be just. 

Mr. Latham was married, on November 19, 1874, to Miss Mary 
L. Allen, daughter of Thomas H. Allen of Memphis, Tennessee. 



EDWARD LAUTERBACH 



EDWARD LAUTERBACH, whose brilliant career as a law- 
yer and politician has made his one of the most familiar 
names in New York, was bom in New York city on August 12, 
1844. His education was begun in the public schools and contin- 
ued in the College of the City of New York, from which institu- 
tion he was graduated with honors in 1864. He worked hard in 
school and college, as one to whom study was a privilege rather 
than a drudgery, and as soon as he received his degree entered 
upon a course of law in the offices of Townsend, Dyett & Morrison. 
Alter his admission to the bar he became a member of this firm, 
which was then reorganized under the name of Morrison, Lau- 
terbach & Spingarn. The death of Mr. Spingarn terminated the 
partnership, and Mr. Lauterbach formed his present connection 
with the firm of Hoadley, Lauterbach & Johnson. Individually, 
the firm is an unusually strong one, and is well known throughout 
the country. 

Mr. Lauterbach has made an exhaustive study of the statutes 
relating to corporate bodies, and has a high standing at the bar 
as a speciahst in this department of practice. He has success- 
fully conducted a large number of important litigations involving 
intricate points of law, and has a wide reputation for being able 
to settle large cases outside the courts. 

In addition to his other practice, Mr. Lauterbach is a promi- 
nent figure in railroad circles as an organizer. He was insti'u- 
mental in bringing about the consolidation of the Union and 
Brooklyn Elevated roads, and the creation of the Consohdated 
Telegraph and Electrical Subway, and was concerned in the re- 
organization of many railroads. He is coimsel for and a director 
of a number of street surface railroads, among others the Third 
Avenue system. 



222 




a 



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\: 



EDWAED LAUTEEBACH 223 

Mr. Lauterbach has always been a Republican, and bas taken 
as active a part in State and local politics as the absorbing natui-e 
of his profession would permit. For some years he was chair- 
man of the Repubhcan County Committee of New York, and 
was associated with Chauncey M. Depew, Thomas C. Piatt, 
Frank S. Witherbee, and Frank Hiscock in the advisory com- 
mittee of the Republican State Committee. In the Republican 
National Convention held at St. Louis in 1896 he was a delegate 
at large from New York, was the member from New York of the 
committee on resolutions, and was one of the sub-committee of 
nine appointed to draft the platform, the financial plank of 
which presented the greatest issue that had been before the 
American people for many years. Mr. Lauterbach was one of the 
three delegates at large from the city of New York to the Consti- 
tutional Convention, which met in June, 1894. He was made 
chairman of the committee on pubhc charities, an appointment 
which was considered highly appropriate, as he has been very 
prominent in all philanthropic and benevolent work, and is con- 
nected officially with many charitable organizations. The cause 
of education has a sympathetic and practical friend in Mr. 
Lauterbach, who has done much in various ways for its 
advancement. 

Mr. Lauterbach is mamed, and has four children. The old- 
est, a son, was educated for his father's profession, and was 
admitted to the bar at the age of twenty-one. The other three 
are daughters. Mrs. Lauterbach has for years been a conspic- 
uous figure in New York society, not only in its brilhancy and 
pleasure-seeking, but also in its beneficent activities. She be- 
came interested in the Consumers' League, and did much to 
seciu-e legislation for the benefit of women employed in factories. 
She has also been interested in the movement for woman suf- 
frage, the Grood Government clubs, the Prison Guild, and many 
other enterprises for the improvement of social, industrial, and 
educational conditions. 



LYSANDER WALTER LAWRENCE 

'TTAPPY the people whose annals are blank in the history 
JLIL books," said Carlyle. Even more true is it of the man 
whose quiet life enables him to keep out of the " history books." 
Such a man is Lysander Walter Lawrence. He has no war 
record. He has held no pohtical of&ce, and has never wanted 
one. He has never caused a public sensation. Yet he has lived 
a happy, prosperous, useful hfe, full of kind deeds, essentially 
a friendly hfe ; and now, although he is far from having " fall'n 
into the sear, the yellow leaf," he has, and in abimdance, 

" that which should accompany old age, 
As honor, love, obedience, troops of friends." 

Mr. Lawrence was bom in Albany, New York, on July 30, 
1836. He grew up in that cultivated city and was educated 
in its best schools. In April, 1858, he came to New York city 
and entered on a business career which has been steadily suc- 
cessful. Li 1863 he married an estimable lady of Savannah, 
Georgia, with whom he enjoyed the most perfect marital bliss 
for thirty-five years, imtil her death in 1898. He has just built 
and presented to the village of Palenville, in New York State, 
where he and Ms wife were accustomed to spend their summers, 
the Rowena Memorial, a very handsome stone building fitted 
with every best modern device, in which the two district schools 
of the village have been consolidated. 

When Mr. Lawrence came to New York he obtained employ- 
ment with a prominent firm of manufactm-ing stationers. Five 
years later he was admitted to the firm, and siibsequently, on 
the death of some of the partners and the retirement of others, 
he became sole proprietor of the concern, which is now one of 





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LYSANDEK WALTEE LAWKENCE 225 

the most important of its kind in the United States. It is a 
noteworthy fact that in the entii'e forty-one years of his business 
Ufa Mr. Lawrence has remained within a stone's throw of the 
spot where he began, in Nassau Street, near Pine Street. Mer- 
chants have moved far away. Banks and insui'ance companies 
have gone, sometimes up-town and sometimes down. Building 
after building in which he was located has been demolished to 
make room for immense new edifices. But he has stuck close 
to the old stand, and has held most of his original patrons. Pos- 
sibly most of Mr. Lawrence's friends, if called on to mention 
his chief trait, would at once declare that it is fidelity — fidehty in 
business and in social relationships. But on second thought they 
would probably agi'ee that his most marked characteristic is friend- 
liness. If some customer wishes a peculiar trinket for his desk, 
Mr. Lawrence will provide it — the more certainly if it prove diffi- 
cult to obtain. Not for the profit to be made on it. The chances 
are that if he has to send to the other side of the world for it, or 
have it invented and newly made, he will deliver it with a bill 
for a quarter of its cost, after which he will retire to his private 
office and quietly enjoy the pleasure he has conferred. If a 
faithful clerk gi'ows unwontedly serious and at times appears 
troubled, he may find, some evening after he has kissed his wife 
and the baby, that the formidable-looking envelop that came 
by a late mail contains a " satisfaction piece " as proof that the 
mortgage on his house has been paid off — by Mr. Lawrence, of 
com'se. If some institution for improving and gratifying public 
taste has a specific need, Mr. Lawrence will offer aid for the 
purpose, provided his name be kept out of the subscription list. 
If some family be in want of food or fuel or money to pay 
the rent, a natural affinity will bring the case to the knowledge 
of this shy, retiring man, and then the distress will be reheved. 
And such deeds will be done because Mr. La^vrence is impelled 
by the glowing power of friendship — for the young clerk quite 
as much as for the bank president, for the destitute family quite 
as truly as for the popular institution. In truth, so genial and 
friendly is this man that no person, even a stranger, can en- 
counter him five minutes in his place of business without going 
out more cheerful than he went in. Thus the world is better 
because Walter Lawrence is living in it. 



JAMES D. LAYNG 



THE history of the development of the American nation is, 
industrially, largely a history of railroads. In no other coun- 
try have raih'oads been built on so enterprising a scale, and in no 
other have they done so much for the material upbuilding of the 
nation, or contributed so much to the progress of social and 
pohtical affairs. For beyond doubt the great trunk-lines stretch- 
ing in all directions over the continent are one of the most potent 
factors in binding together all parts of the Union in a harmo- 
nious whole. 

Naturally, therefore, railroad men figvire largely in the national 
biography. It is with such a man that we are at present to deal. 
James D. Layng is the son of George W. Layng, a lawyer, and 
Ehzabeth N. Layng, and was born at Columbia, Pennsylvania, 
on August 30, 1833. His father was born in the north of Ire- 
land, of Scotch and Irish ancestry, and his mother was born in 
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, of Irish ancestry. He was educated 
at the Western University, of Pennsylvania, at Pittsburg, and was 
graduated there in the class of 1849. His attention was imme- 
diately thereafter centered upon railroading, and to that business 
it has been chiefly devoted ever since, with more than ordinary 
success. 

It was on August 9, 1849, when he was scarcely sixteen years 
old, and had been out of college only a few weeks, that he began 
work as a rod-man in the engineer corps engaged in building the 
Ohio and Pennsylvania Railroad. He remained at that work 
until March 12, 1850, when he became level-man in the same 
service. On May 1, 1850, he became an assistant engineer of 
construction of the same road ; on November 25, 1851, resident 
engineer of construction of the SteubenviUe and Indiana Rail- 
road; in November, 1853, resident engineer of construction of 



226 





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JAMES D. LAYNG 227 

the Cleveland and Mahoning Railroad ; in January, 1856, chief 
engineer of maintenance of way ; and in April, 1858, superin- 
tendent of the Steuben ville and Indiana Railroad ; in October, 
1865, superintendent of the eastern division of the Pittsburg, 
Fort Wayne and Chicago Railroad, into which the old Ohio 
and Pennsylvania road had been transformed; in July, 1871, 
assistant manager, and in August, 1874, general manager of 
the Pennsylvania Company's lines, including the Pittsburg, Fort 
Wayne and Chicago, formerly Ohio and Pennsylvania, so that 
thus, after twenty-five years, he became general manager of 
the very road on which he began his work as a surveyor's rod- 
man. In July, 1881, he became general superintendent of the 
Chicago and Northwestern Railroad. Since January 1, 1884, 
he has been general manager of the West Shore Railroad ; from 
April, 1887, to July, 1890, he was president of the Cleveland, 
Columbus, Cincinnati and Indianapohs Railroad ; since July 1, 
1890, he has been vice-president of the Cleveland, Cincinnati, 
Chicago and St. Louis Railroad ; and since December 1, 1890, he 
has been general manager of the Beech Creek Raih'oad. 

At the present time Mr. Layng is vice-president and general 
manager of the West Shore Railroad, vice-president of the C, 
C, C. & St. L. Railroad, general manager of the Wallkill Valley 
Railroad, general manager of the Beech Creek Railroad, vice- 
president of the Illinois Zinc Company, and a director of the 
West Shore Railroad, the New York & Harlem Raih-oad, the C, 
C, C. & St. L. Railroad, the Wallkill Valley Railroad, the New 
Jersey Junction Railroad, the West Shore & Ontario Terminal 
Company, the Lincoln National Bank of New York, the City 
Trust Company of New York, and the Iron City National Bank 
of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. 

With this imposing array of business interests, Mr. Layng has 
found no time for office-holding or for active participation in 
politics, apart from the duties of a private citizen. He is a 
member of the Union League, Metropolitan, and Transportation 
clubs, and the Ohio Society of New York. 

Mr. Layng was married, on February 13, 1862, to Miss Agnes 
Means of Steubenville, Ohio. Their children are named Frank 
S., Addie M., Mary L., Agnes W., and James Dawson Layng, Jr. 



J. EDGAR LEAYCRAFT 



J EDGAR LEAYCRAFT is a native of New York, and a 
• son of the late Anthony D. Leaycraft, who was also of 
New York birth. He was bom in the Ninth Ward, and his first 
education was had in the public school on Thirteenth Street, 
near Seventh Avenue. From it he was graduated to the Free 
Academy, which has since become known as the College of the 
City of New York. In the latter institution he was able to 
remain only one year, at the end of which he decided to bid 
farewell to school, and to enter practical business life. 

His first engagement was in a broker's office on Pine Street. 
He was then a mere boy, and began with a boy's work and a 
boy's pay. But his diligence and apphcation secured him 
advancement, so that at the age of eighteen years he was cashier 
and bookkeeper of a firm doing a large banking and brokerage 
business. Not long after this the firm dissolved, and he was 
compelled to look elsewhere for employment. He promptly 
decided to find it iu an office of his own. 

Mr. Leaycraft accordingly began operations in the business 
which has engaged his chief attention ever since. He opened 
on his own account a real-estate office on Eighth Avenue, near 
Forty-second Street. He was a stranger in that part of the city, 
with no friends and no patrons. But he started in to win them, 
and soon succeeded. He did a large business in selling and 
leasing, and secured the permanent management of a number 
of pieces of property. Year by year his patronage increased, 
until now he is said to have the largest in all that quarter 
of the city, as well as a splendid business in other districts. 
He represents the tnistees and executors of a number of estates, 
and is agent for some of the most extensive personal and 



228 



J. EDGAB LEAYCKAFT 229 

corporate estates in New York, as well as for a whole army of 
clients. He has successfully negotiated many important sales 
of property in various parts of the city, and has often been called 
to serve as an appraiser. He has for several years been a direc- 
tor, and for three years treasurer, of the Real Estate Exchange 
and Auction Rooms, Limited, and was one of the founders and 
first directors of the Real Estate Board of Brokers. These lat- 
ter places are indicative of the good will that is felt toward Mr. 
Leaycraft, and of the confidence that is felt in him, by his asso- 
ciates and rivals in the real-estate business. 

Apart from his business, strictly speaking, though in a great 
measure because of his success and integrity in business, Mr. 
Leaycraft's interests are varied, numerous, and important. His 
regard for the real-estate business and his unceasing efforts to 
raise its standard naturally led him into the movement on the 
upper West Side of the city which culminated in the formation of 
the West End Association, of which he has been treasurer and 
a most influential and active member for a number of years. 
Similarly, he was among the first members of the Colonial Club, 
the chief social organization in that part of the city. He was 
chosen a member of its committee on site, and it is largely be- 
cause of his judgment and foresight that the club now possesses 
its fine club-house in an unsurpassed situation. Mr. Leaycraft 
maintains an active interest in the club, being a member of its 
board of governors, and also its treasnrer. 

Mr. Leaycraft has been for a number of years a trustee of the 
Franklin Savings Bank, and at the present time is a member of 
its finance committee and chairman of the committee in charge 
of the erection of its new building. He is a member of the 
Board of Trade and Transportation, the Chamber of Commerce 
of the State of New York, the Union League Club, the New 
York Historical Society, the American Museum of Natural His- 
tory, the Up-Town Association, the Merchants' Association, the 
Republican Club of the City of New York, of which he has for a 
number of years been treasurer, of the Colonial Club, as already 
stated, and of the West Side Repubhcan Club, of which he has 
been president and a member of the executive committee since 
its foundation. He is a strong and consistent Republican, and 
has been a member of the County Committee of that party for 



23U 



J. EDGAR LEAYCRAFT 



some years, though he has never been an ofi&ce-seeker nor a 
candidate for any office. In 1889, however, he was appointed by 
Governor Roosevelt a member of the State Board of Tax Com- 
missioners, a place for which his expert knowledge of real-estate 
values pecuharly fitted him. This appointment was made with- 
out soUcitation by Mr. Leaycraft, or the exercise of any influence 
in his behalf, and was accepted by him at the Governor's request. 
Mr. Leaycraft has long been a member of the Methodist Epis- 
copal Church, and a member and officer of the Madison Avenue 
Church of that denomination. He is also treasurer of the New 
York City Church Extension and Missionary Society of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church, to the work of which he gives 
generously of his time, his labor, and his means. 

From this brief outhne of his busy and honorable career it 
will readily be concluded that Mr. Leaycraft has been, in the 
best sense of the term, the architect of his own fortunes, the 
builder of his own character and success. His unfaihng integ- 
rity, his soundness of judgment, his devotion to business, his 
mastery of its principles and details, his energy, his foresight 
and enterprise, are chief among the elements which have attained 
for him the high success which he now enjoys, and which none 
of his rivals in business, not even those whom he may have far 
outstripped, can have just cause to begrudge him. 




i n 





&y7/LyiMA^yl\j^ 



DAVID LEVENTRITT 



DAVID LEVENTRITT, justice of the Supreme Court of 
the State of New York, is a Southerner by bh*th, but a New- 
Yorker by education and long residence. He was bom at 
Winnsboro, South Carohna, on January 31, 1845. When he 
was nine years old premonitions of troublous times in that part 
of the country were not lacking. The spirit of antagonism 
between North and South was steadily growing, and threatening 
to burst into violent conflict. In those controversies Mr. Leven- 
tritt's family took little actual part. But in 1854 his parents 
decided to remove to the North. Whether purposely or not, 
they thus avoided the cataclysm of war and disaster that pres- 
ently came upon the Palmetto State, and spent the remainder of 
their days in the peace and security of the Northern metropohs, 
and the boy grew up here as a New York boy. 

He attended the pubUc schools of the city, and thence pro- 
ceeded to the College of the City of New York, then known as 
the Free Academy. Throughout his school life he was noted as 
a fine student, and when he finished his course in the Free 
Academy he was graduated, in 1864, as the salutatorian of his 
class. He then adopted the law as his profession, and entered 
the Law School of New York University, or the University of 
the City of New York, as it was then called. There he was a 
diligent and receptive student, and he was in due time gradu- 
ated. Admission to practice at the bar followed, and then the 
young man opened an office and began work. 

His excellent preparation and his natural gifts and aptitude 
assured him success. This was not won without hard work, but 
from that he did not shrink. He soon gained by practice a wide 
and valuable familiarity with all important branches of law. 



'2Zi 



232 DAVID LEVENTEITT 

especially of commercial law. He was employed as counsel in 
many noteworthy cases, and achieved a high average of success, 
especially as a trial lawyer. In the last twenty years few law- 
yers in New York have appeared in court more frequently or to 
more successful purpose than he. He was special counsel for 
the city in the proceedings for condemnation of land for the 
Washington Park, in which the property-owners claimed more 
than fifteen hundred thousand dollars. After a hard legal and 
argumentative battle, the case was settled at less than half that 
figure. 

Mr. Leventritt has long taken an active interest in politics as 
a Democrat and a follower of Tammany Hall. He was never 
an office-holder, however, until 1899, except as, by appointment, 
chairman of the Commission for the Condemnation of Lands for 
the new Third Avenue Bridge over the Harlem River. In the faU 
of 1898, however, he was nominated by the Democratic party for 
a place on the Supreme Court bench of the State. The campaign 
was a somewhat embittered one, but Mr. Leventritt ran ahead 
of his ticket, and was triumphantly elected. At the beginning 
of 1899 he took his place upon the Supreme Court bench, and 
was immediately designated as one of the justices of the Appel- 
late Term, a distinction not heretofore accorded to a judge during 
his first year of service. 




V" 





ADOLPH LEWISOHN 



THE subject of this sketch was bom in Hamburg, Germany, 
on May 17, 1849. Adolph Lewisohn comes of an old and 
honorable family, whose connection with mercantile affairs in 
Hamburg is part of that city's history. His father, Mr. Samuel 
Lewisohn, conducted a large business, wdth headquarters in 
Hamburg, but with connections which were world-wide. The 
importance of the American branch of the elder Mr. Lewisohn's 
business brought Adolph Lewisohn to this country as a young 
man, and he at once commenced to build up the foundation of 
that brilliant career which has brought him into the front rank 
of the business men of the metropoHs. In early life Mr. Lew- 
isohn was a gi-eat student, and even in his boyhood a remarkable 
master of mathematical propositions, having been especially 
proficient in algebraic problems; and this faculty has largely 
been brought into play in later life, as applied to the serious 
matters always entering into extended business operations. Mr. 
Lewisohn's remarkable success is largely due to his wonderful 
judgment in selecting business associates, he having always 
been careful to suiTound himself with the very best material 
for whatever particular piu-pose there might be in point. The 
assistants with whom he thus surrounded himself, being con- 
trolled by the calm, judicial mind, the self-contained, forceful 
character of Mr. Lewisohn, have been no small aids in the devel- 
opment of the important business now represented by the pow- 
erful fii-m of Lewisohn Brothers, of which Adolph Lewisohn is 
general manager. 

The possession of wealth, and the ability to enjoy all that wealth 
can purchase, are two distinct and separate things, not always 
found in happy combination ; but in the case of Mr. Lewisohn 



234 ADOLPH LEWISOHN 

this most happy result is achieved. As a lover of art in all its 
branches, as a connoisseur of paintings, as an educated master 
of the beauties of architecture, Mr. Lewisohn stands prominent ; 
and his knowledge in these directions, his refined tastes, and 
his appreciation of fine hterature have resulted in a private life 
which affords not only happiness to himself, but delight to his 
family and to aU those who are fortunate enough to be classed 
among his friends. 

Mr. Lewisohn married, in 1878, Miss Emma M. Cahn of Phila- 
delphia, and his domestic life seems to afford him his greatest 
pleasure. The result of this marriage has been a charming fam- 
ily of three daughters and two sons. Two of the daughters are 
married to young and rising merchants of this city. 

Mr. Lewisohn has just completed a fine residence at No. 9 
West Fifty-seventh Street, the architectural beauties of which 
have been the subject of much comment. 

His summers are spent at his country place at Elberon, known 
as "Adelawn," which was formerly known as the Childs 
place, having been built by the late George W. Childs, and 
which has always been one of the show-places of that beautiful 
seaside resort. It has been very much improved by the present 
owner, and is to-day unquestionably one of the most beautiful 
and effective gentlemen's seats on the New Jersey coast. 

In addition to his identification with the firm of Lewisohn 
Brothers, Mr. Lewisohn is a director in many other prominent 
enterprises and institutions, though his disposition is such as to 
render him desirous of avoiding any notoriety ; and the same 
principle prevails in the large charity which he exercises, and 
of which few know save those who profit by his generosity. 






z-€^>i,.^^ 



^ 




LEONARD LEWISOHN 



TnE subject of the present sketcli, who has long been promi- 
nent in this city and country as a merchant and financier, 
comes from a city and from a family long noted for com- 
mercial and financial achievements. His father, Samuel Lewi- 
sohn, was for many years one of the best-known merchants in 
that city of merchant princes, Hambui'g, Germany. In that city 
Leonard Lewisohn was born, on October 10, 1847. 

His early hfe was spent in Hamburg, where he enjoyed the un- 
sm'passed educational advantages afforded by that city. There 
are no more thorough schools for boys than those of Oermany, 
many of which pay particular attention to instruction and disci- 
phne in business and commercial matters, and also to physical 



trammg. 



Young Lewisohn was an admirable student in all 



branches, and when he left school was both physically and intel- 
lectually equipped for the campaigns of hfe more completely 
than most young men. 

On leaving school he entered his father's office, and for three 
years served there, putting into practice the business principles 
which he had studied in school, and confirming his knowledge 
of them and his facility in using them. Then, though he had 
not yet attained his majority, he decided to seek a wider field for 
his activities than that city afforded. He judged that in the 
United States he would find the opportunities he craved, and 
accordingly he came hither in 1865, settling in New York. 

It was not necessary, however, for him to enter upon the hard 
struggles and hmnble employment which are the lot of so many 
immigrants. On the contrary, he had the great Hamburg house 
of his father to back him, and he established himself here partly 
as its American representative. In January, 1866, when he was 



236 LEONARD LEWISOHN 

less than nineteen years of age, he started the firm of Lewisohn 
Brothers, with offices at No. 251 Pearl Street, conducting it at first 
as a branch of the Hambiu-g house. The firm imported bristles, 
horsehair, ostrich-feathers, and other foreign merchandise, and, 
from the beginning, did a prosperous business. 

In 1868 the importation from Grermany of pig-lead, for use in 
the manufacture of white lead, was engaged in, and later, in 1872, 
the firm began to deal in copper. From that time Mr. Lewisohn 
commenced to interest himself in mining industries. In 1879 
he purchased several mining properties in Butte, Montana, and 
a year later formed the Montana Copper Company, and in 1887, 
with A. S. Bigelow and the late Joseph M. Clark, he formed 
the Boston and Montana Consolidated Copper and Silver Mining 
Company, with headquarters in Boston. His firm, Lewisohn 
Brothers, had been selling agents for the Tamarack and the 
Osceola Copper Mining companies since 1885, and acted in the 
same capacity for the Boston and Montana Consohdated Copper 
and Silver Mining Company and other large companies. In 
1895 Mr. Lewisohn was active in forming the Old Dominion 
Copper Mining and Smelting Company of Arizona, and, in 1897, 
the Isle Royale Consohdated Mining Company of Lake Superior, 
with all of which he is still connected. 

During the year 1899 Mr. Lewisohn became connected with 
the organization of several other companies of which much is 
expected in the future. Among them are the American Smelt- 
ing and Refining Company, the Santa Fe Gold and Copper Mining 
Company, and the Tennessee Copper Company. For many years 
Mr. Lewisohn has been a firm believer in the importance of the 
American copper-mines, realizing that they must soon be relied 
upon to furnish the world's supply, the mines of Europe having 
been all but exhausted for years, and those of South America 
and Africa having to await the development of railroads and 
other facilities. The upward movement in the price of copper 
he regards as natural and not forced, inasmuch as it results from 
the enormous and increasing demand from all parts of the world 
for manufacturing and electrical purposes, in comparison with 
which the visible supply of the metal is small. 

Mr. Lewisohn was married, in 1870, to Miss Rosalie Jacobs, 
with whom he lives happily, surrounded by a large family. 



EDWARD VICTOR LOEW 



EDWARD VICTOR LOEW is a son of Frederick and Sa- 
lome S. Loew, who came to this country from Strassbui'g, 
Alsace, then a province of France, but now a part of the German 
Empire, in the early part of the present centuiy. He was bom 
in New York city on March 18, 1839, and was educated in the 
public schools until he was twelve years old. At that time, on 
account of the death of his father, he was compelled to leave 
school and go to work for his own support. 

His first engagement was in a real-estate office, and he appUed 
himself diligently to learning the details of that business. In 
time he rose to be chief clerk of the office in which he was em- 
ployed. He left that place to go into partnership with his 
brother, Charles E. Loew, now deceased, in the same business. 
In the meantime he studied law, especially that pertaining to 
real estate, and in 1868 was admitted to the bar. By making a 
specialty of real-estate conveyancing and other business of that 
sort he soon built up a lucrative practice. He also engaged in 
land speculations and building operations, with much success. 
Down to the present time he has been interested in the erection 
of nearly four hundred buildings for residential purposes in New 
York city. 

Mr. Loew has long been active in financial affairs. In 1867 
he was an incorporator of the Eleventh Ward Bank, of which 
he is still a director. Two years later he was an incorporator of 
the Eleventh Ward Savings Bank, and was the first president of 
that institution. In 1870 he was one of the incorporators of the 
Manufacturers' and Builders' Fii'c Insurance Company, becom- 
ing its first president and serving for twenty-three years. In 
1873 he was an incorporator of the New York Real Estate Guar- 



238 EDWAED VICTOR LOEW 

anty Company. In 1899 he was an incorporator of the New 
Amsterdam Casualty Company, and has since been its president. 
He is a director of the Seaboard National Bank, the Knicker- 
bocker Trust Company, the Trust Company of New York, and 
the Standard Gfas Light Company ; and is vice-president of the 
American Savings Bank, the Iron Steamboat Company, and the 
Batopilas Mining Company. 

Mr. Loew has, ever since he attained his majority, taken an 
earnest interest in public affairs, though reluctant to take office. 
After dechning various nominations, however, he was induced, 
in 1884, to become the candidate of various reform organizations 
for Controller of the city, and was elected by a handsome ma- 
jority. He served for a term of three years, and distinguished 
himself by the intelligence and integrity with which he fulfilled 
the duties of that important office. In 1887 he was earnestly 
urged to accept a renomination, but felt compelled, by personal 
business interests, to decline. 

Mr. Loew belongs to a number of the best clubs of the me- 
tropolis, and is a welcome and influential figure in them. Among 
them are the Manhattan Club, the City Club, and the Riding 
Club. 

He was married in New York, in 1872, to Miss Julia Goadby, 
daughter of Thomas Goadby, a retired manufacturer of New 
York. Mr. and Mrs. Loew have a family of three sons and two 
daughters: Edward Victor Loew, Jr., William Goadby Loew, 
Frederick W. Loew, Edna Goadby Loew, and Marguerite Sa- 
lome Loew. Their home is a center of refined social hfe and 
graceful hospitality. 

Mr. Loew's fortune and high standing in the community have 
been won by dihgent labor, unswerving integrity, and those 
elements of perseverance, shrewdness, and just discrimination 
which make for deserved success. At the same time he has 
given employment to thousands of men, and thus opened to 
them the paths of advancement. He has been ready with help- 
ing hand for the deserving, and has given much of his wealth, 
discreetly and uuassmningly, for philanthropic purposes. 




I. 



RICHARD PURDY LOUNSBERY 



ONE of the oldest families in the old town of Bedford, West- 
chester County, New York, and the adjacent region, is 
that of Lounshery, who came from Yorkshh'e, England, in 1643, 
and settled at Rye, New York. His descendants, or some of 
them in each generation, remained near the old homestead. 
Among them was James Lounshery, who was born at Bedford 
in 1795, and had a successful career as a New York merchant. 
He married Ann PhiUips Rundle, daughter of Solomon Rundle 
of PeekskiU, New York, whose mother was a direct descendant 
of the Rev. Greorge H. Phillips, who came over with Governor 
Winthrop in 1630. 

Richard Purdy Lounshery, son of James and Ann Phillips 
Lounshery, was born at Bedford on August 9, 1845. His 
education was acqmred in his native village under the direction 
and instruction of the Hon. James W. Husted, the Rev. Robei't 
Bolton, and Professor Albert Williamson. His business career 
was begun as a clerk in the office of Mills, Knickerbaker & Co., 
bankers and brokers, of New York. In 1867 he opened an office of 
his own on Broad Street, and in 1868 became a member of the New 
York Stock Exchange. His firm has been successively known 
as Loimsbery & Franshawe, Lounshery & Haggin, and Louns- 
hery & Co. As the head of that house he has participated in 
many of the largest financial operations of the last third of the 
century. He has been engaged in the business of a banker 
and broker continuously, since his entrance into it, with the 
exception of five years, 1871-76, when he was engaged in 
practically learning the mining business in Utah. 

The knowledge of mining affairs thus gained has enabled 
him since to take a leading part in dealing in mining secuii- 
ties in the New York market. 

239 



240 EICHABD PUEDY LOUNSBEEY 

Mr. Lounsbeiy has taken part in the organization of various 
mining corporations, and is at present ofi&cially connected with 
several. He is thus connected with the Ontario Silver Min- 
ing Company of Utah, the Homestake Mining Company of 
South Dakota, the Anaconda Copper Mining Company of Mon- 
tana, the American Mining Company of Mexico, the Terrible 
Mining Company of Colorado, and the Last Dollar Mining 
Company of Colorado. He is also a director of the West- 
chester Trust Company. 

His club and social affiliations are numerous. He belongs to 
the Union League Club, New York Yacht Club, Players' Club, 
Lambs' Club, Grolier Club, Riding Club, New York Athletic 
Club, City Club, Museum of Natural History, American Geo- 
graphical Society, New England Society, St. Nicholas Society, 
Lawyers' Club, and other organizations in New York city, the 
Coney Island Jockey Club, the Knollwood Country Club, the 
St. James Club of Montreal, and the Forest and Stream and 
St. Jerome clubs of Canada. He is a vestryman of St. Matthew's 
Protestant Episcopal Church at Bedford. He is devoted to hunt- 
ing, fishing, yachting, and similar out-of-door sports. 

Mr. Lounsbery was married, at San Francisco, California, on 
August 21, 1878, to Miss Edith Hunter Haggin, daughter of 
James B. Haggin, the well-known mine-owner and patron of 
the turf. They have three children : James Ben Ali Haggin 
Loimsbery, Edith Lounsbery, and Richard Lounsbery. 

The family home in New York is at No. 12 East Thirty-Fifth 
Street. In the country — the latter being the real home — it is 
Jocuistita Hall, a splendid place at Bedford, New York. 






':JcUaJc 




EDWARD E. McCALL 



A THOROUGH New-Yorker, though horn not in the metrop- 
olis, but the pohtieal capital of the State, is the subject of 
the present sketch, albeit a member of that Scotch-Irish ele- 
ment in our cosmopolitan poj^ulation which has so often proved 
its grit and manly worth. 

A typical New-Yorker, too, he may be called in his profes- 
sional and business life. For he is a member of that learned 
profession which finds in the metropohs its most important field 
of action, its most numerous adherents, and its most distin- 
guished members. In the practice of the law, moreover, he is 
especially associated with those branches which are connected 
with the great business interests of the city. A lawyer may 
attain success anywhere. But the lawyer making a specialty of 
financial corporation practice must seek his field in the city 
where such corporations have their seat. The name of Mr. 
McCaU's cousin, John A. McCall, is inseparably identified with 
insurance interests in the State and city of New York. It has 
fallen to Mr. McCall's lot to be similarly identified with the legal 
interests of the vast business of insurance. 

Edward E. McCall was born on January 6, 1863, at Albany, New 
York, the son of John and Katherine McCall, the former of 
whom is now deceased. His childhood was spent in his native 
city, and his early education was obtained in its schools. He 
was prepared for college in the Albany High School, and then 
came to New York city to pursue a higher course of study. 
This he did in New York University, or, as it was then known, 
the University of the City of New York. 

Before coming to New York he had decided to follow the 
legal profession, and upon leaving the university he took direct 

241 



242 EDWARD E. McCALL 

steps to that end. He began liis practice alone, but soon formed 
a partnership with WilKam C. Arnold. This association con- 
tinued for some time and then was dissolved, since which disso- 
lution Mr. McCall has taken no other partner, but has continued 
in highly successful practice alone. 

Mr. McCall's practice is chiefly in civil law, and deals largely 
with banking, insurance, and financial matters in general. He 
is now counsel for the three largest life-insurance companies in 
the world, namely, the Mutual Life, the Equitable Life, and the 
New York Life Insm-ance companies, of New York, and also for 
the International Banking and Trust Company of New York, 
and for the Munich Reinsm-ance Company. The duties con- 
nected with these vast corporations are enough to occupy a large 
share of bis time. He is able, however, to add to them much 
other professional and business activity. 

He is a director, as well as counsel, of the International Bank- 
ing and Trust Company, and president and director of the 
International Automobile and Vehicle Tire Company, 

Mr. McCaU is affiliated with the Democratic party, but has 
never held nor sought pubhc office, and has taken no active part 
in politics aside from discharging his duties as a citizen. 

He is a member of the Manhattan Athletic, Democratic, Har- 
lem, Cathohc, and Lawyers' clubs, of New York. 

He was married at Albany, New York, to Miss Ella F. Gaynor, 
daughter of Thomas S. Graynor of that city. Two children 
have blessed their union, who bear the names of EUa Gaynor 
McCall and Constance McCaU. 




JOHN AUGUSTINE McCALL 



THERE are few contemporary careers in the State of New- 
York more perfectly illustrative of what has been called 
the " genius of accomplishment " than that of the man who, as 
president of the New York Life Insurance Company, is one of 
the foremost figiu-es, not only in insurance, but in finance, in this 
financial center of the western hemisphere. He began his work 
in a humble station, pursued it faithfully and diligently for many 
years, and at last, by sheer force of merit, won his place at the 
head of his chosen calling. 

John Augustine McCall is of Scotch-Irish ancestry on both 
sides of the house. His father, who also bore the name of John 
A. McCall, was a merchant at Albany, New York. His mother's 
maiden name was Katherine MacCormack. He was born to 
them at Albany on March 2, 1849, and spent his boyhood under 
their care and training. He was sent to the public schools of 
Albany, and thence to the Albany Commercial College, at which 
latter institution he received a good business training. He 
was a good average student, making no especial record for him- 
self, but doubtless mastering his studies well, and at the same 
time enjoying the sports and recreations common to boys of his 



age. 



At the age of eighteen he faced the first crisis of his career. 
He had then to begin taking care of himself, and was called upon 
to choose his vocation in life. At once his native bent for finance 
asserted itself. He applied for a place in the banking depart- 
ment of the State government, and although he had no especial 
backing or " pull," he presently secured an engagement in the 
Assorting House for State Currency, at sixty dollars a month. 
There he worked for some time, but a little later transferred his 



244 JOHN AUGUSTINE McCALL 

activities to another place, in the great business to which his 
whole life has since been devoted. 

This new place was that of a bookkeeper in the office of the 
Connecticut Mutual Life Insurance Company, at Albany. The 
business of life-insurance was not then nearly as prosperous and 
important as it is now, but he reahzed its possibilities with pro- 
phetic eye, and decided to stick to it. Prom the office of the 
Connecticut company he went, at the age of twenty years, into 
the State Insurance Department at Albany, of which George W. 
Miller was then the head. He began with a subordinate clerk- 
ship, but steadily worked his way upward, through rank after 
rank. Thus he passed through the actuarial and statistical 
bureaus, and in three years was an examiner of companies. 

Mr. McCall remained an examiner for four years, and then 
was promoted on his merits to the place of deputy superinten- 
dent of the Department of Insurance, and thus became the 
prominent figure that he remained for so long a time. He was 
a Democrat in politics, and places in the Insurance Department 
were commonly reckoned political places. Yet so assured was 
his official worth to the people of the State, and so great and 
general was the confidence in his administration of the duties of 
his office, that he was retained in his place through two Repub- 
lican State administrations. 

In fact, it would be difficult to overestimate the value of Mr. 
McCall's work to the insurance interests, and to the people of 
this State. When he began his official work at Albany there 
was a vast amount of dishonesty in both life- and fire-insurance, 
through which gi-eat losses were occasioned to insurers, and 
confidence in the whole system sorely shaken. Mr. McCall ex- 
posed it mercilessly, and did incalculable good for the benefit of 
policy-holders all over the world. No less than twelve untrust- 
worthy fire-insurance companies were compelled to retire from 
business, and eighteen unsound life-insurance companies of this 
State and fifteen of other States were similarly bi'ought to book. 
Nor did his reformatory work stop there. Several companies 
persisted in dishonest ways, until he was compelled to resort 
to the severest measures. The presidents of two of them 
were convicted by him of perjury, and were sent to the peniten- 
tiary. Since that time the insiu'ance business of this State has 



JOHN AUGUSTINE McCALL 245 

been on a far sounder basis than ever before, and failures of 
companies and losses by policy-holders have been few indeed. 

Such work conld not go without recognition. At the begin- 
ning of 1883 the insurance companies of the State wished to urge 
his appointment to the head of the department. He refused to 
let them do so. But he could not prevent a host of represen- 
tative business men of all parties from sending to the Governor 
a monster petition for his appointment as superintendent. "His 
indefatigable industry, enlightened endeavor, and uncompromis- 
ing fidehty to duty have given abundant proof of his fitness," 
they declared. And so Governor Cleveland appointed him to 
the office. Governor Hill, who succeeded Governor Cleveland, 
offered him a reappointment, but he declined it, and became con- 
troller of the Equitable Life Assurance Society, a place he was 
ideally fitted to fill. Then a crisis came in the affairs of the 
New York Life Insurance Company, and he was called upon to 
become its president and to rehabilitate the great institution 
from the evil ways into which it had been led. He accepted the 
call, and has fulfilled the trust with magnificent success. 

Mr. MeCall is also connected with the New York Surety and 
Trust Company, the National City Bank, the Central National 
Bank, the National Surety Company, the Munich Reinsurance 
Company, the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, and the 
Ingersoll Sergeant Drill Company. He is a member of the 
Metropohtan, Colonial, Lawyers', Catholic, Merchants', Manhat- 
tan, New York Athletic, Norwood Field, the Arts, and City clubs, 
the Chamber of Commerce, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 
the Albany Society, and the National Arts Club. 

He was married at Albany, in 1870, to Miss Many I. Horan of 
that city, and has seven children : Mrs. Albert McClave, Mrs. 
D. P. kmgsley, John C. McCall, Ballard McCall, Leo H. 
McCall, Sydney C. McCaD, and Clifford H. McCall. 



©^ 




JOHN JAMES McCOOK 



" ALL young, all gallant, and all successful." That is the de- 
XA. scription given by James G. Blaine, in his Memoirs, of a 
family that became famous during our Civil War and has ever 
since been known as " the fighting McCooks." There were two 
divisions of them — cousins, the children of Daniel and John 
McCook, brothers. They came of that sturdy and canny Scotch- 
Irish stock which has given to this country so many of its ablest 
men. Of the sons of Daniel McCook there were nine. The first 
was named John James, but he was lost at sea, a midshipman in 
the navy, and his name was transferred to the youngest son, 
who was born three years later. 

The subject of this sketch was bom at Carrollton, Ohio, on 
May 25, 1845. He was a student at Kenyon College when the 
war broke out, and forthwith joined the Sixth Ohio Cavahy. 
He was then only sixteen, the youngest of the " fighting Mc- 
Cooks," and by no means the least gallant or least successful. 
He began, of course, as a private soldier. In a few months he 
was promoted to be an officer. At seventeen years old he was a 
lieutenant, at eighteen a captain, at nineteen a brevet major, and 
at twenty, at the close of the war, a brevet colonel. He served 
in many campaigns in both the East and West. He fought at 
PerryviUe, at Murfreesboro, at Chickamauga, in the Wilderness, 
and around Petersburg. He received his fij'st brevet for gallan- 
try on the field at Shady Grove, where he was seriously womided. 
It may be added that his father was killed while leading a party 
to intercept Morgan the raider, and that seven of his brothers 
were in the army, five of them rising to the rank of general. 

At the close of the war the young soldier was not yet of age. 
He went back to Kenyon College and took up his studies where 

24G 



JOHN JAMES McCOOK 247 

he had laid them down, and in due course of time was gradu- 
ated with honorable standing. Then he went to Harvard and 
piu'sued a course in its law school. Having got his second 
diploma and been admitted to practice at the bar of Ohio, he 
came to this city, where the pursuit of his profession is at once 
most arduous and most promising of success and distinction. 

For many years he has been a member of the well-known firm 
of Alexander & Green, and as such has been identified with 
many important cases in both the local and the United States 
courts. He was for a number of years general counsel for the 
Atchison, Topeka and Sante Fe Eailroad, and when that road 
fell into difiiculties he was made its receiver, and in that capa- 
city reorganized it. He is also legal adviser and a director of 
the Equitable Life Assurance Society, of the Mercantile Trust 
Company, of the American Surety Company, and, in one capacity 
or another, connected with various other important business 
corporations. 

In politics Colonel McCook is a stanch Republican. It was a 
matter of regret to his many friends when he dechned President 
McKinley's invitation to enter his cabinet as Secretary of the 
Interior, a position for which his legal training and business 
experience exceptionally qualified him. 

Colonel McCook has by no means let his profession absorb all 
his attention and activities. He has played a conspicuous part 
in the social life of the metropohs, and has been most useful in 
promoting rehgious and educational interests. He has for some 
years been a trustee of Princeton University. He has also long 
been a leading member of the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church, 
and he was the prosecutor in the famous ecclesiastical trial of 
Professor Charles A. Briggs of the Union Theological Seminary. 
He is a member of the University, Union League, Union, City, 
Metropohtan, Harvard, Princeton, and Tuxedo clubs, the Ohio 
Society, the Bar Association, and the mihtary order of the 
Loyal Legion. He has received the degrees of Master of Arts 
from Kenyon College and from Princeton University, Bachelor 
of Laws from Harvard University, and Doctor of Laws from the 
University of Kansas and Lafayette College. He is married to a 
daughter of Henry M. Alexander, one of the founders of the law 
firm of which he is a member. 



THOMAS ALEXANDER McINTYRE 



THERE need be no hesitation in guessing the ancestry of 
those who bear the name of Mclntyre. Scotch it sounds, 
and Scotch it is, and Scotch in the sturdy virtues of the race are 
those who bear it. Ewan Mclntyre has long been known as one 
of the foremost druggists of this city, and for many years presi- 
dent of the College of Pharmacy. He was married to Miss 
Emily A. Bridgeman, daughter of Thomas Bridgeman, a well- 
known writer on horticulture and practical horticulturist. They 
have a large family of sons and daughters, of whom the second 
son is the subject of this sketch. 

Thomas Alexander Mclntyi-e was born in this city on October 
19, 1855, and received the best education the local schools could 
afford. His busiuess career began in a clerkship in the grain 
and produce house of David Bingham. Afterward he entered 
the employment of David Dows, in the same hne of business. 
In those offices he learned the grain trade so thoroughly that in 
1878 he ventured to engage in it on his own account as the head 
of the firm of Mclntyre & Bingham. The next year, on May 1, 
1879, Henry L. Wardwell, who had been his fellow-clerk in the 
office of David Dows, and who was particularly well informed in 
the flour trade, joined forces with him in the firm of Mclntyre 
& Wardwell. They had between them about forty thousand 
dollars capital, and with that they began a commission business 
at the Produce Exchange, in which they have continued down 
to the present time, and in which they have been exceptionally 
successful. For years the firm has been credibly reputed to be 
the largest dealers in grain in the United States. It has long 
purchased aU the grain used by the Hecker-Jones-Jewell Milling 
Company, the largest concern of the kind in New York. Mr. 



248 



THOMAS ALEXANDEB McINTYBE 249 

Mclntyre, indeed, was one of the organizers and is treasurer of 
that company, which has a capital of five milUon dollars. 

Mr. Mclntyre was also the organizer and is the vice-president 
and chairman of the executive committee of the great Brooklyn 
Wharf and Warehouse Company, which controls the bulk of the 
water-front facilities of that part of the metropolis. He is a 
director of the Corn Exchange Bank, vice-president of the Hud- 
son River Bank, vice-president and trustee of the Produce Ex- 
change Trust Company, a leading director of the International 
Elevating Company, director of the Cuban and Pan-American 
Express Company, director of the State Trust Company, and a 
member of the committee of management of the Royal Insiu'- 
ance Company. He owns a large tract of pine forest in North 
Carolina, where he has established, besides his mills and other 
works, a delightful winter home. 

Mr. Mclntyre has held no political office, but has long taken a 
keen interest in public affairs, and has labored earnestly for the 
cause of good government in State and nation. Generally he 
has been identified with the Democratic party, but in the na- 
tional campaign of 1896 he supported the Republican ticket, 
on the sound-money issue. He is one of the foremost members 
of the Produce Exchange and of the Chamber of Commerce. 
He belongs to the Metropolitan, Manhattan, Colonial, Reform, 
Lawyers', Down-Town, New York Athletic, New York Yacht, 
Subm-ban, Riding and Driving, and other clubs. His city home 
is on West Seventy-fifth Street, and is one of the finest man- 
sions in that fine part of the city. 

Mr. Mclntyre was mairied, in 1879, to Miss Anna Knox, daugh- 
ter of Henry Knox of the New York bar. They have several 
children. Mr. Mclntyre is a member of the Fifth Avenue Pres- 
byterian Church and a generous supporter of its activities. His 
sterling integrity and genial qualities have won for him the con- 
fidence and esteem of all who know him, as his enterprising and 
energetic character and sound judgment have secured for him 
far more than ordinary business success. 



JOHN SAVAGE McKEON 



JOHN SAVAGE McKEON was born on February 3, 1845, 
in Brooklyn, New York. He is the son of James and 
Elizabeth McKeon, and his father was connected with the firm 
of C. W. & J. T. Moore & Co., well-known wholesale dry-goods 
merchants of New York city before the war. Both his parents 
were natives of Ballymena, Ulster County, in the north of Ire- 
land. They were very religious people, being adherents of that 
strictest of Presbyterian sects^ the Church of the Covenanters. 

Mr. McKeon was educated in PubUc School No. 1, Brooklyn, 
on the comer of Adams and Concord streets, and was graduated 
therefrom in 1859, under Lyman E. White, principal. 

At the early age of fourteen he entered the store of Joseph 
Bryan, clothier, at No. 214 Fulton Street. His position was a 
hard one, and for two years he was obUged to do heroic duty, 
working fifteen hours daily. The experience was a difficult one, 
but he found it to be of hfetime value. 

In 1861 he engaged with Hanf ord & Browning, who at this time 
had large contracts for making clothing for the United States 
army. He remained with this firm and others for nine years. 

In 1872 he formed a partnership with Edward Smith and 
Allen Gray of Brooklyn, manufacturers of clothing, under the 
firm name of Smith, Gray, McKeon & Co. After six years in 
this connection he opened his present place of business at Broad- 
way and Bedford Avenue, in 1878, conducting a wholesale busi- 
ness in boys' clothing in connection with his extensive retail 
business. In January, 1898, he transferred his wholesale plant 
to Manhattan Borough, Nos. 696-702 Broadway, at the corner 
of Fourth Street. 

Mr. McKeon has been prominent in political affairs, but has 



250 



JOHN SAVAGE McKEON 251 

steadily refused all nominations for public office. For two years 
he held the position of president of the Nineteenth Ward Repub- 
lican Committee, but of late years his many business responsi- 
bihties have precluded the assuming of other duties. 

He is a director of the Amphion Academy Company, and of 
the American Union Life Insiirance Company. He is a trustee 
of the Kings County Savings Institution, trustee and chairman 
of the finance committee of the Kings County Building and 
Loan Association, and trustee of the Eastern District Hospital. 

In the club world Mr. McKeon is well known. For two years 
he was president of the Union League of Brooklyn, his term 
expiring May 10, 1899, and he is now a member of the Board of 
GoveiTiors. He is a member of the Hanover Club and is a direc- 
tor of the Apollo Club. He is president of the Long Island Life- 
Saving Association, and has been for twenty years trustee and 
treasui'er of the Ross Street Presbyterian Church, Brooklyn. 

He was married, on May 10, 1866, to Miss Eliza Jane Eason 
of Brooklyn. They have been blessed with an interesting family 
of eight children — five sons and three daughters. Their names 
are John Wilson, Flora Eason, Mary Beatty, Robert Lincoln, 
James Elder, Isabella Cooper, Charles Augustus Wilson, and 
Harold Nisbet. Two of the sons and one daughter are happily 
married. 

Mr. McKeon is an ardent and devoted Mason of the thirty- 
second degree, and was made a Master Mason in Crystal Wave 
Lodge in 1867. He belongs to Kismet Temple of the Mystic 
Shrine. He is also a member of the Royal Arcanum, Franklin 
Council. 



(Si^ 




EMERSON McMILLIN 

EMERSON McMILLIN was bom neai* tlie viUage of Ewing- 
ton, in Gallia Couuty, Ohio. His fattier was a manager of 
the iron furnaces in that neighborhood, and the boy was early 
initiated into the processes of that trade. Between the ages of 
twelve and sixteen he served an ai^prenticeship in the various 
occupations connected with the operation of iron-works. Mean- 
time he attended the local pubhc schools with some irregularity, 
but easily kept himseK at the head of his class in scholarship. 
Thus in boj^hood he gained a good practical education, learned 
an important trade, and developed a splendid physical frame and 
a capacity for almost endless hard work. 

The opening of the Civil War f oimd him only seventeen years 
of age, and thus under the enlistment hmit. Nevertheless he got 
himself accepted as a soldier, and sei-ved through the war. He 
was several times severely wounded, and was promoted for his 
bravery. Five of his brothers and his father were also in the 
army, and three of the brothers were killed. 

At the end of the war he engaged in mercantile pursuits for 
two years, and then became a gas-works manager. In 1875 he 
began the manufacture of iron and steel, and between that date 
and 1883 was manager and president of various iron and steel 
works in the Ohio valley. His interest in the iron trade was 
maintained down to a few years ago. Between 1874: and 1890 he 
became the owner of a number of small gas-plants in the West. 
In the fall of 1888 he bought the Columbus (Ohio) Gras Company, 
and the next year consolidated the four gas companies of St. 
Louis, Missouri. At the time one of these four companies was 
selling gas at a dollar a thousand feet, and losing money ; another 
was seUing it at a dollar and a half , a third at a dollar and sixty 

252 



EMEBSON McMILLIN 253 

cents, and the fourth at two dollars and a half. After the con- 
solidation all gas was sold at about ninety-three cents, and still 
large profits were made. 

Mr. McMillin's career as a banker began in 1891. On August 
1 of that year the firm of Emerson McMillin & Co., bankers, 
began business at No. 40 Wall Street, New York. Since that 
date it has built up a large and profitable business in a field 
which is comparatively new in banking circles, namely, the pur- 
chase and consolidation of gas companies and the handling of 
their securities. 

Soon after Mr. McMillin began this business in New York the 
East River Gras Company of New York was organized, and he 
was elected its president. It was under his immediate super- 
vision that the tunnel under the East River between Long Island 
City and New York was constructed, for the purpose of convey- 
ing gas from the works on Long Island to the consumers in New 
York. 

Mr. McMillin, in 1892, negotiated the purchase and consolida- 
tion of the street-railways of Columbus, Ohio. His firm was 
also an important factor in the organization of the New England 
G-as and Coke Company of Boston, Massachusetts. Among 
other properties which the firm has acquired and reorganized in 
the last few years may be mentioned the St. Paul Gas and Elec- 
tric Company of St. Paul, Mmnesota, the Denver Gras and Elec- 
tric Company of Denver, Colorado, the Columbus Natural and 
Illuminating Gas Companies of Columbus, Ohio, and the corre- 
sponcUng concerns in Madison and Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Grand 
Rapids, Jackson, and Detroit, Michigan, St. Joseph, Missouri, 
Long Branch, Asbury Park, and Redbank, New Jersey, and 
San Antonio, Texas. 

Among the recent enterprises of Mr. McMillin's firm are the 
building of hydraulic works for the generation of electricity, 
near Quebec, Canada, and also near Montgomery, Alabama, and 
the construction of a similar plant in the vicinity of St. Paul, 
Minnesota, to supply electricity for use in that city. 



CLARENCE HUNGERFORD MACKAY 

THE Mackay family, which for many years has been among 
the foremost in American business and social circles, is of 
comparatively recent settlement in the United States. It was 
founded here by John Wilham Mackay, the mining and submariae- 
cable magnate, who was born in Dublin, Ireland, came to this 
country at an early age, and went to Cahfornia with the "forty- 
niners " to seek and to find a fortune. He married Miss Marie 
Louise Hungerford, whose father, Colonel Hungerford, was a 
distinguished officer in the Mexican and Civil wars, and who 
was a dkect descendant of Sir Thomas Hungerford of Farleigh 
Castle, England. Miss Hungerford was bom in New York city. 

To Mr. and IVIrs. Mackay was bom, in San Francisco, Califor- 
nia, on April 17, 1874, the subject of this sketch, Clarence Hun- 
gerford Mackay. His early life was largely spent in Europe, 
where his parents made their home for much of the time. His 
education, a most thorough one, was acquired first at Vangirard 
College, Paris, France, and afterward at Beaumont College, 
Windsor, England. At an early age he began to manifest some- 
thing of that taste and aptitude for business and finance which 
made his father so marked a man of affairs, and his inchnations 
in that direction were not discouraged. By the time he had 
reached the age of twenty years he had received an excellent 
collegiate training, and was ready for an active business life. 
This he began under the immediate direction of his father, than 
whom he could have wished no better preceptor. 

Mr. Mackay entered his father's office in 1894. Two years 
later he had so far demonstrated his business abihty that his 
election as president of the American Forcite Powder Manufac- 
turing Company was regarded as a fitting tribute to him and as 





It** 




CLARENCE HUNGERFORD MACKAY 255 

giving promise of much good to that corporation. He filled that 
place with success for three years. In the meantime he became more 
and more closely connected with the great business interests of his 
father, including real-estate, mining, telegraphic, etc. He was 
elected a director of the Postal Telegraph Company and of the 
Commercial Cable Company, with which his father is identified, 
on February 25, 1896, and on January 21, 1897, he was elected a 
vice-president of both companies. To these great corporations 
and their ramifications his attention has since chiefly been given. 
He retired from the presidency of the Forcite Powder Company 
in February, 1899. A little later in the same year he organized 
the Commercial Cable Company of Cuba, and endeavored to lay 
a cable from the United States to Cuba, in competition with the 
one already existing. He asked for this no subsidy, nor any aid 
from the government, but merely permission to land the cable 
on the shore of Cuba. General Alger, the then Secretary of 
War, refused such permission, though many eminent authorities 
expressed the opinion that it ought to be granted without delay. 

Mr. Mackay occupies a prominent position in society in New 
York, in California, and in Em-ope. He belongs to many social 
organizations, among them being the Union Club, the Knicker- 
bocker Club, the Racquet and Tennis Club, the New York Yacht 
Club, the Meadowbrook Club, the Westchester Country Club, 
the Lawyers' Club, and the Metropohtan Club, of New York, 
and the Pacific Union Club and the Bohemian Club of San 
Francisco. 

He was married on May 17, 1898, his bride being Miss Kath- 
erine Alexandra Duer, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. William A. 
Duer of New York city, A daughter was born to them, at their 
home in New York city, on February 5, 1900. 




JOHN WILLIAM MACKAY 



JOHN WILLIAM MACKAY is of Scottish ancestry and 
Irish birth. He comes from that canny Covenanter stock 
which in Cromwell's time colonized the northern part of Ireland 
and made the province of Ulster the thiifty and prosperous 
community it has ever since been. He was born in Dubhn, on 
November 28, 1831. Nine years later his parents brought him 
to Amei-ica with them, and settled in New York city. Two 
years later the father died, and the task of caring for the children 
fell upon the widowed mother, who performed it nobly. 

After acquiring a good common-school education, John was 
apprenticed to a ship-builder, and had to do with fitting out ships 
that were to go "around the Horn." Then the gold fever of 
1849 broke out, and claimed him for its own. He went to Cali- 
fornia and worked with pick and shovel. He learned the whole 
mining business by practical experience, and lived a sober life, 
thus keeping body and mind sound, but remained a poor man. 
In 1860 he chmbed over the Sierras into Nevada. At Grold Hill 
he made an investment which paid httle. Then he looked over 
the Comstock Lode, and made up his mind that it contained 
vast fortunes. He began work at the northern end of it, sinking 
a shaft at Union Ground. But lack of capital hampered him, 
and he was constrained to foiin a partnership with two other 
young men who had been making money in business and specu- 
lation in San Francisco. These were James C. Flood and Wil- 
liam S. O'Brien. A fourth partner, James C. Walker, a practical 
miner, was also taken into the firm when it was formed in 1861. 
That was the beginning of the famous " Bonanza Firm." Mr. 
Walker dropped out in 1867, by which time their profits were 
over a million dollars, and his place was taken by James 0. 

256 








]^7^^ ^/tl 




JOHN WILLIAM MACKAY 257 

Fair. Mr. Mackay was the leading spirit. He persuaded the 
others to buy adjacent claims. When the lodes seemed to he 
worked out, it was he who insisted on going down to deeper 
levels. And so was developed one of the greatest mining proper- 
ties the world has ever seen. In six years the output was over 
three hundred million dollars, and the financial history of the 
world was changed. IVIr. Mackay owned two fifths of these 
mines. 

Mr. Mackay was the founder of the Bank of Nevada, and 
carried it through a loss of eleven million dollars, which it suf- 
fered through a " wheat corner" speculation of one of its officers 
in 1887. In 1884 he formed a partnership with James Gordon 
Bennett, of the New York " Herald," for the consti-uction of 
some new Atlantic cables, and thus brought into being the great 
Commercial Cable Company, and the Postal Telegraph Com- 
pany, of which he has since been the head. He was urged in 
1885 to accept election to a seat in the United States Senate, 
from Nevada, but declined it. He has given his wealth with a 
generous hand to numerous benevolent institutions, and ranks 
among the most public-spirited of citizens. Among his bene- 
factions is a large asylum for orphans at Virginia City, Nevada. 
He is a liberal supporter of the Roman CathoUc Church, of 
which he is a member. 

Mr. Mackay was married, in 1867, to Miss Hungerford, a 
daughter of Colonel Daniel C. Hungerford, who was a veteran 
of the Mexican and Civil wars. Mrs. Mackay is a woman of 
exceptional social culture and brilliancy, and has been for many 
years a conspicuous figure in the best society in New York, 
London, and Paris. She is also a generous patron of literature, 
fine arts, and benevolent works. Two sons have been born to 
Mr. and Mrs. Mackay, named John W. Mackay, Jr., and Clar- 
ence Hungerford Mackay. 



€>S> 




WILLIAM MAHL 



THE revolutionary period of 1848 in Europe caused the migra- 
tion of many of the subjects of those countries to the United 
States. Among them were Dr. WiUiam Mahl and his wife, for- 
merly Louise Brodtman, and then- two children. Dr. Mahl had 
been a practising physician at Karlsruhe, Baden, and was de- 
scended from a family conspicuous in its devotion to the Protes- 
tant faith in the days of rehgious intolerance. His wife was a 
daughter of Carl Joseph Brodtman of Schaffhausen, Switzerland, 
one of the pioneers in lithography. Dr. Mahl, being pohtically 
proscribed, came to the United States and entered upon a promis- 
ing career in his profession, but fell a victim to yellow fever in 
New Orleans in 1856. 

One of his two children was William Mahl, who was bora at 
Carlsruhe on December 19, 1843. He was just beginning to ac- 
quire an education when his father died, and thereafter his in- 
struction and training were supervised by his mother, a woman 
of marked fitness for the task. The family was then settled in 
Louisville, Kentucky. In 1859 his mother died, and he was 
compelled to leave school and enter business life. His bent for 
mechanics secured him a place in the office and shop of a manu- 
facturer of mathematical instruments at Louisville. But in 
1860 he left that calhng and entered the service of the Louisville 
and Nashville Railroad, under Albert Fink, who was then the 
superintendent of the road and machinery department. Four 
years later he became chief clerk of the mechanical and road 
department of the Louisville and Frankfort and Lexington and 
Frankfort Railroad. His investigations and reports into the 
cost of operating railroads attracted the attention of others 
interested in these problems. The result of his researches was 



258 



^^'^^ 






WILLIAM MAHL 259 

heartily acknowledged in the annual report of the Louisville 
and Frankfort and Lexington and Frankfort Railroad for the 
year ending June 30, 1865. 

Two years later he was chosen to be auditor of that road, and 
he held that place, together with that of purchasing agent, until 
1872. In the latter year he became associated with Colonel 
Thomas A. Scott, then president of the Texas and Pacific Rail- 
road. Mr. Mahl became auditor of that road, and after the panic 
of 1873 was made also its financial agent in Texas. At the close 
of 1871 he went back to the Lomsville and Frankfort and Lex- 
ington and Frankfort. The latter road had fallen a victim to the 
panic, and was in a bad plight. He became auditor to its re- 
ceiver, and for the reorganized company, and thus served imtil 
1879. Then he was elected general superintendent of the road, 
and remained in that place until the road was sold, at the end 
of 1881. 

Early in 1882 he entered the New York office of C. P. Hunt- 
ington, and was, in 1896, appointed assistant to the president and 
controller of the Newport News and Mississippi Valley system 
of roads, consisting of six conjoined roads extending from New- 
port News, Virginia, to New Orleans. On Mr. Huntington's sale 
of this system, Mr. Mahl was appointed assistant to the president, 
and later controller of the Southern Pacific Company, which place 
he still holds. He is also assistant to the president of the Pacific 
Mail Steamship Company, and controller of the Mexican Inter- 
national Railroad Company, the Guatemala Central Railroad 
Company, the Newport News Ship-building and Dry Dock Com- 
pany, and several other enterprises. His field of observation 
embraces 9196 miles of raih-oad. 

Mr. Mahl is a member of the Lawyers' Club of New York, the 
Bohemian Club of San Francisco, Louisville Commandery No. LI, 
Knights Templar, and other organizations. He was married at 
Louisville, in 1865, to Miss Mary A. Skidmore. They have fom- 
children, named Frederick William, John Thomas, Alice Mary, 
and Edith Virginia. 



SYLVESTER MALONE 



THE beautiful town of Trim, on tlie still more beautiful 
Boyne River, in County Meath, Ireland, was the birth- 
place of one of the best-known and most -beloved priests of the 
Roman Cathohc Chui'ch in America. There dwelt Laurence 
Malone and his wife Marcella ; he a civil engineer, and a man 
of high attainments, she a woman of more than ordinary force 
of character. To them was born, on May 8, 1821, a son, to 
whom they gave the name of Sylvester, after Mrs. Malone's 
father, Sylvester Martin of Kilmessan. Sylvester was the sec- 
ond of three sons. He was educated at an academy of 
high scholarship, which was conducted by Protestants, but in 
which the utmost rehgious tolerance was inculcated by example 
as well as by precept. He remained true to the Roman Cath- 
ohc faith of his parents. 

In 1838, the Rev. Andrew Byrne of New York, afterward 
Bishop of Little Rock, Ai'kansas, visited Ireland in search of 
promising candidates for the priesthood. He met Sylvester 
Malone, became interested in him, and brought him to the United 
States. He reached Philadelphia, where the landing was made, 
on May 11, 1839. The young man immediately proceeded to 
New York, and entered the Seminary of St. Joseph, at Lafarge- 
ville, Jefferson County, New York. There he was educated for 
the priesthood. The next year the seminaiy was removed to 
Fordham, now a part of New York city. On March 10, 1844, 
Bishop Hughes consecrated three bishops in St. Patrick's Cathe- 
di-al, and on that august occasion young Malone was miter- 
bearer. On August 15, 1844, he was ordained a priest of the 
diocese of New York. He first said mass at Wappingers Falls, 
New York. Then he was appointed to take pastoral charge of 



260 




C/^ i^ 7^^\ir" ■,^y^^'WA^i. 



SYLVESTEK MALONE 261 

a parish in Williamsburg, now a part of Brooklyn, and in that 
place all the rest of his life was spent. 

On Saturday, September 21, 1844, the young priest arrived 
at the scene of his hfe-work. The parish was then known as 
St. Mary's, but the name was soon afterward changed to Sts. 
Peter and Paul. In 1848 the present edifice was completed. 

It would be impossible in less space than a volume to tell 
adequately the story of Father Malone's long career. He made 
the church the center of every possible good work. He planted 
missions on every side. He labored for temperance, and indus- 
try, and law and order. When the Civil War broke out, in 1861, 
he placed an American flag on the spire of the chiu-ch building 
and kept it flying there imtil the war was ended, as a token of 
his stanch patriotism. At the first Decoration Day ceremonies 
in Brooklyn he rode in the procession in the same carriage with 
three Protestant ministers, and spoke from the same platform 
with them — a sight not before seen in Brooklyn. On many 
other occasions Father Malone worked side by side with clergy- 
men of other faiths, and always commanded the utmost respect, 
reverence, and love of all, without regard to creed. 

He was elected by the Legislature a regent of the University 
of the State of New York, on March 29, 1894. That was the 
golden jubilee of his priesthood. Beginning on Sunday, Octo- 
ber 14, 1894, the fiftieth anniversary of his ordination aud his 
settlement over his parish were celebrated with religious ser- 
vices and with social festivities such as few men have ever been 
the subjects of. There was a practically universal outpom'ing 
of congratulation and praise from the press and pulpits and 
general public, regardless of political party or denominational 
creed. To the end of his life Sylvester Malone stood among 
the foremost Christian ministers of America, in length and 
value of services, in native worth, and in the esteem and con- 
fidence and love of his feUow-men. He died on December 29, 
1899. 



EBENEZER STITEGES MASON 



THE parents of Ebenezer Stui-ges Mason were Charles and 
Sarah Mason, both descendants of EngUsh families of high 
standing, which were transplanted to this country in the years 
preceding the Revolutionary War. The home of Charles and 
Sarah Mason was in New York city, and here their son, the 
subject of this sketch, was born, on April 14, 1843. 

The boy was marked by his parents for a business career, and 
was educated and trained with that end in view. He was sent 
to the pubhc schools of New York and Brooklyn, where his 
natural aptitude and earnest application enabled him to master 
the practical branches of study with admirable thoroughness. 
He was sent to no higher institution of learning, but went from 
the school-house directly into a business office. 

His first engagement was as a clerk in a New York shipping 
house. In that place he served for several years, giving his em- 
ployers entire satisfaction, and acquiring for himself a most 
thorough and valuable practical acquaintance with sound busi- 
ness methods and principles. 

From mercantile life he passed into financial occupations, as 
an assistant bookkeeper in the Bank of New York. This place 
he took on October 30, 1865, being at the time only a little more 
than twenty-two years old. He quickly displayed a decided fit- 
ness for the duties of a bank, and made rapid progress in the 
favor of his employers. Promotion followed promotion, in rapid 
succession, and he made his way steadily toward the highest 
rank in his calling, and to the highest place in the esteem and 
confidence of his business associates. He has a clear and far- 
seeing mind, especially in commercial and financial matters, 
and his knowledge of real-estate values is highly esteemed. 



:;62 



EBENEZER STURGES MASON 263 

Mr. Mason continues to this day his connection with the Bank 
of New York, but has extended his business interests to include 
various other important corporations. Among these latter may 
be enumerated the Real Estate Trust Company of New York, 
the Transatlantic Fire Insm-ance Company of Hamburg, and the 
Atlanta and Charlotte Air Line Railroad Company. To all of 
them he gives a considerable amount of personal attention, and 
he is an active factor in promoting then* prosperity. 

In poUtical matters, Mr. Mason has always been an earnest 
Republican. His absorption in business has, however, left him 
no time for ofl&ce-holding, or indeed for any political activities 
beyond the exercise of the privileges and discharge of the duties 
of an intelhgent and interested private citizen. 

He has found little time, either, and felt little inclination, for 
much participation in club life. He is a member of the Union 
League Club of New York, and is a welcome frequenter of its 
house. But his domestic tastes lead him to devote the major 
part of his leisure time to his own home. He is a member of the 
Chamber of Commerce of the State of New York. 

Mr. Mason was married, on April 14, 1875, to Miss Abbie Low 
Ranlett of New York city. The happiness of their home life 
has been augmented by tlie advent of a family of three bright 
and interesting children. These are a son and two daughters, 
named respectively Kenneth Mason, Evelyn Ranlett Mason, and 
Adele Sturges Mason. 




WARNER MILLER 



4 MONGr the early settlers in Westchester County, New York, 
Xa_ about the year 1680, was one John Miller, a sturdy Dutch- 
man. He had four sons, named James, Abram, Ehjah, and An- 
thony. Elijah had a daughter named Martha, and Anthony a 
son named William, and these two cousins married each other, 
and had a son, to whom they gave the name of Hiram. The last- 
named was the father of Warner Miller, the subject of this sketch. 

Warner Miller was born in Oswego County, New York, on 
August 12, 1838. He studied in the local schools and at Union 
College, where he was graduated in 1860. That fall he became 
professor of Greek and Latin in the Collegiate Institute at Fort 
Edward, New York. At the outbreak of the Civil War he joined 
the Fifth New York Cavahy as a private. He served in the 
Shenandoah VaUey, and was promoted for gallant conduct until 
he became a lieutenant. At Winchester he was taken prisoner, 
and, whUe sick in the hospital, was paroled. 

Mr. Miller then went back to Fort Edward, and entered the 
emplojonent of some paper manufacturers, in time becoming 
superintendent of the mills. He next organized a company of 
his own, at Herkimer, New York, to manufacture paper out of 
wood-pulp. He invented the machines needed for that work, 
and made the first wood paper, and started an industry which 
has now risen to gigantic proportions. He did not try to keep a 
monopoly of the business, but made his processes public and sold 
his machines to aU who would buy. Wood-pulp paper hterally 
revolutionized the paper trade, and the newspaper and book-pub- 
lishing businesses as well, for the cost of the white paper was 
reduced from fifteen to three cents a pound. Mr. Miller amassed 
a fine fortune from the business, and estabhshed factories of his 



264 



V 





WAENEK MILLEB 265 

own at Palmer's Falls and Lyon Falls, besides those at Herkimer. 
At Herkimer Mr. Miller has a fine farm of several hundred acres, 
which it is his pride to make and keep a model farm in all respects. 

In 1889 Mr. Miller became interested in the Nicaragua shij)- 
canal. He became president of the company and devoted to it 
years of hard work and a large share of his fortune. It was his 
company that practically began the work. Unfortunate govern- 
ment policies permitted the company to become embarrassed and 
the work to be suspended, but there is a prospect of resumption 
of it under happier auspices, and a triumphant conclusion being 
made of this second great work of Mr. Miller's hfe. 

Mr. Miller became interested in politics as a Republican at an 
early date. At a political meeting at Herkimer in 1867 he was 
called upon suddenly to take the place of a speaker who had 
failed to arrive, and acquitted himself so well that he at once 
became a leader. He was elected to the Assembly from Herki- 
mer County in 1873, and again in 1874. In 1878 he was elected 
to Congi'ess, and was reelected in 1880. His second teiTn was 
interrupted by his election, in the summer of 1881, to the United 
States Senate. As Senator he secured the passage of the letter- 
carriers' eight-hour law, an important pension law, the " head- 
money " law regulating immigration, and the " ahen contract 
labor" law. He also seciu-ed important improvements for the 
harbor of New York, and was instrumental in the creation of 
the Department of Agriculture and the Labor Bureau. In 1888 
he was a leading member of the Republican National Convention 
which nominated General Harrison for the Presidency, and was 
himself the candidate for Grovernor of New York. His efforts 
secured the election of General Harrison, but he was himself de- 
feated. Since that time he has been a commanding figure in the 
councils of the Republican party. 

Mr. Miller was mai'ried to Miss Churchill, a daughter of Henry 
Churchill of Glovers\ille, Fulton County, New York, whose ma- 
ternal grandfather introduced into this country the manufacture 
of gloves. They have had four sons and one daughter. Mr. 
Miller has, since his childhood, been identified with the Metho- 
dist Episcopal Church, to which his family has belonged for sev- 
eral generations, and he has devoted to its interests much of his 
strength, time, and means. 



DARIUS OGDEN MILLS 

FEW narratives are more fascinating than those which tell of 
the rise of men, by dint of native virtue and energy, from 
comparatively humble stations in life to vast wealth and influence 
and power for good among their fellow-men. The United States 
is notably the land where such careers are most to be found, and 
among those to be observed here there is not one more worthy 
of attention than that of Darius Ogden MiUs. He comes of an 
old north of England family which at the middle of the last 
century came to this country and settled on Long Island, and then 
removed to Connecticut, near the New York hne. Some mem- 
bers of the family, indeed, established themselves in Westchester 
County, New York, and there, in the last generation, James Mills 
was supervisor and justice of peace for the town of North 
Salem. He was a man of high standing in the community, and 
was successfully engaged in various lines of business, but, late in 
hfe, lost most of his property through unfortunate investments. 
He died at Sing Sing in 1841, leaving his sons to make their own 
fortunes. 

Darius Ogden Mills, son of James Mills, was bom at North 
Salem on September 25, 1825, and inherited the rugged health, 
mental acuteness, and flawless integrity that had distinguished 
his father. He received his education at the North Salem 
Academy, and at the Mount Pleasant Academy at Sing Sing, ex- 
cellent institutions of that rank. He left the Sing Sing school 
at the age of seventeen to complete his training in the wider and 
higher school of the business world. For several years he per- 
formed the duties of a clerkship in New York, bringing to them 
the quahties of person and character that assure — or, still better, 
deserve — success. In 1847, on the invitation of his cousin, E. 

266 



( 





DARIUS OGDEN MILLS 267 

J, Townsend, he went to Buffalo, New York, to serve as cashier 
of the Merchants' Bank of Erie County, and also to form a busi- 
ness partnership with Mr. Towusend. The bank was one of 
deposit and issue, under a special charter, and did a prosperous 
business. But in December, 1848, Mr. Mills decided to leave it 
and go to Cahfornia, where the discovery of gold gave promise 
of untold gains for enterprising men. Mr. Townsend agreed to 
maintain, m any business which Mr. Mills might undertake in 
Cahfornia, the same relative interest which they had in the bank, 
and to protect all drafts which Mr. Mills might make. And so 
Mr. Mills followed his two brothers to the Pacific coast, where 
he aiTived in June, 1849. 

It has not escaped observation that some of the largest for- 
tunes were made in Cahfornia, not in digging gold, but in de- 
veloping the ordinary industries of the country. And the latter 
were, as a rule, the more stable. Adventurous men who went 
thither to pick up gold were often disappointed hi their quest. 
Those who did make fortunes sometimes lost them again, on the 
familiar principle, " Easy come, easy go." The substantial for- 
tunes, or most of them, were made by those who set about sys- 
tematically to develop the general resources of the country, to 
create varied industries, and to promote trade and commerce. 

To such latter enterprises Mr. Mills decided to devote his at- 
tention. His first undertaking, on reaching California, was to 
buy a stock of general merchandise and with it make a trading 
expedition to Stockton and the San Joaquin Valley. To this 
end, he entered into partnership with one of his fellow- voyagers, 
and together they bought a small sailing-vessel, loaded it with 
goods, and went to Stockton, where the cargo was sold at a 
profit. The two partners then separated, and Mr. Mills retm-ned 
to Sacramento, deeming that the best center of trade with the 
miners. He opened a store of general merchandise, buying gold- 
dust, and dealing in exchange on New York. By November, 
1849, he had cleared forty thousand dollars, and was so well 
pleased with his prospects that he decided to return to Buffalo, 
close out all his interests there, and make California his home. 
This he did, and in 1850 was at work again in Sacramento. 

Thereafter his record was largely the financial and business 
record of the Pacific coast. He established a bank, called the 



268 DABIUS OGDEN MILLS 

Bank of D. O. Mills & Co., which is still the principal bank in 
Sacramento. A branch of it was opened at Columbia, under the 
management of his brothers James and Edgar, In 1857, owing 
to too close application to business, his health became impaired, 
and he went to Europe for rest. Returning with health and 
strength restored, he resumed his business with more energy 
than ever, and soon had on hand greater undertakings than he 
had yet known. It was owing to his reputation for judgment, 
decision, shrewdness, and absolute integrity that he was chosen 
president of the great Bank of California, when that institution 
was organized in 1864. It began with a capital of two miUion 
doUars, which was soon increased to five milhon dollars, and, un- 
der his wise management, it became known and trusted through- 
out the world, and was one of the chief factors in developing the 
greatness of the State. Mr. Mills had taken the presidency re- 
luctantly, and with the intention of soon resigning it, but he 
was prevailed upon to keep the place until 1873. Then he in- 
sisted upon retiring from active business. He left the bank in 
splendid condition, with capital secm*e, profits large, and credit 
unquestioned. Two years later he was called back to save it 
from utter ruin. Its former cashier, WUliam C. Ralston, had 
been made its new president. He went to Mr. MiUs and asked 
him to save him fi"om individual faihu-e. Mr. Mills loaned him 
nine hundred thousand dollars. Then it came out that the bank 
was in trouble, and two days later its doors were closed. It was 
found that there had been an overissue of twelve thousand 
shares of its stock, which had been taken in with Mr. MiUs's 
loan and retired just before the failure. Mr. Ralston was asked 
by the directors to resign the presidency, which he did ; and be- 
fore the meeting of the directors adjourned, his dead body was 
found in the bay — whether the victim of accident or suicide 
was never determined. 

Mr. Mills again became president of the bank, serving without 
compensation. Its habihties were then $19,585,000, including 
$5,000,000 capital stock and $1,000,000 reserve, while it had on 
hand $100,000 in cash, besides its general assets. Mr. MiUs and 
the other directors raised a fund of $7,895,000, of which Mr. 
MiUs subscribed $1,000,000. Mr. Mills, in conjunction with 
WUliam Sharon and Thomas BeU, guaranteed payment of the 



DARIUS OGDEN MILLS 269 

outstanding drafts and credits of the bank ; and on September 
30, one month and five days after its suspension, the bank re- 
sumed business on a sound foundation. By Mr. Mills's timely 
and skilful management, the bank had been saved and a disas- 
trous panic on the Pacific coast had been averted. Having thus 
restored the bank's prosperity, Mr. Mills retired from its presi- 
dency in 1878. 

During his residence in California, Mr. Mills identified himself 
with the general business interests of that State, and invested 
largely in land, mines, railroads, etc. He also identified him- 
self with the social and educational interests, becoming a regent 
and treasurer of the University of California, and endowing with 
seventy -five thousand dollars a professorship in that institution. 
He was also one of the first trustees of the Lick estate and the 
Lick Observatory. 

In 1880 Mr. Mills transferred his home and much of his capi- 
tal to New York, and has since been chiefly identified with this 
metropolis. He retains, however, a fine estate at Millbrae, in 
San Mateo County, California, as well as many investments in 
that State. In New York he has become an investor in many 
substantial properties, and thus one of the great financial forces 
of the city. He has erected on Broad and Wall streets a great 
office building, which bears his name, and a similar building in 
San Francisco. 

In 1888 Mr. Mills opened and gave to the city a fine training- 
school for male niu'ses, which he had founded and endowed in 
connection with Bellevue Hospital. In 1897-98 he built and 
opened in New York two gi-eat hotels, known as MiUs Houses 
Nos. 1 and 2. These are equipped with the latest and best ap- 
pliances, and are intended for the transient or permanent homes 
of worthy men of moderate means, who cannot aif ord to pay the 
high prices of ordinary hotels, but desire something better than 
the squalor of the cheap lodging-houses. The houses accommo- 
date many hundreds of guests, and are always filled, and are 
justly to be ranked among the most beneficent institutions ever 
devised for the aid of the laboring masses. 

Not almsgiving, but economy, is the key-note of the Mills 
houses. It is Mr. Mills's theory that industry, education, and 
economy are the three prime factors for the promotion of the 



270 DAEIUS OGDEN MILLS 

popular welfare. No one has exemplified the first more perfectly 
than he has in his own career. The second he has generously- 
promoted by his endowments of educational institutions. The 
third, and not least, finds concrete expression and effective prac- 
tice in the Mills houses. " We are too extravagant in this coun- 
try," said Mr. Mills, in discussing some social problems. "There 
is more waste here than in any other country. Persons of smaU 
means as well as persons of large means spend a gi-eat deal more 
money than is necessary in supplying their needs. The value of 
money is not generally appreciated, and anything in the direction 
of an object-lesson in that direction cannot fail to have a benefi- 
cial effect. One of my objects in establishing these model 
cheap hotels was to encourage men of hmited means to practise 
economy by enabhng them to hve comfortably at a very small 
outlay." 

It was in such a spirit of pure and pi-actical philanthropy that 
Mr. Mills estabhshed these hotels. The first one, Mills House 
No 1, is in Bleecker Street. The second, Mills House No. 2, is 
in Rivington Street. Those are districts of the city marked at 
once with industry and with poverty. They are thronged with 
men who make just enough for a living, and who are danger- 
ously near the edge of pauperism or criminality. There are 
hundreds of industrious and well-meaning young men who have 
been unable, under the old conditions, to save any part of their 
small incomes. The estabhshment of these houses enables them 
to save, and assures them comfortable homes in suiToundings that 
are sanitary both for the body and for the mind. Their wages 
are not increased, and they are not forced to curtail their desires 
or needs. But the purchasing power of their wages, for the 
satisfaction of their legitimate desires, is increased by the ehmi- 
nation of waste and extravagance. That is the philosophy of 
the enterprise. 

While thus providing for the welfare and advancement of the 
male wage-earner, Mr. Mills has not overlooked the interests of 
the families, the manied poor, and the women of the masses. 
The Mills hotels are intended for single men ; but he has built 
several model apartment-houses for the use of families of small 
means, in which cleanliness and order, good morals and good 
plumbing, decent associations and the conveniences of modern 



DAEIUS OGDEN MILLS 271 

civilization, can be had at even a less price than has been paid 
for wi-etched quarters in the shuns. His experience as a land- 
lord of such property has proved to Mr. Mills that even the 
poorest of the poor respond quickly to improved conditions and 
envh-onments, and cooperate with their benefactors in striving 
to better their standard of hfe. It may be observed in passing 
that these institutions, founded by Mr. Mills, are serving as 
models for others of similar ptu'port in other cities, so that we 
may properly regard them as the beginning of a general move- 
ment for the better lodging and better hving of the poor, and of 
an increase of thrift among the wage-earners of America. In 
founding this great enterprise Mr. Mills assured for himself — 
though nothing was further from his purpose than seK-glorifica- 
tion — a rank by the side of Peabody and the other most eminent 
philanthropists of the century, those philanthropists who have 
not only helped their fellow-men, but, what is best of aU, have 
helped them to help themselves. 

Mr. MiUs was man-ied, in 1854, to Miss Jane T. Cunningham, 
who died in April, 1888. She bore him two children, Ogden 
Mills, a well-known member of the social and business worlds, 
and Elizabeth, wife of the Hon. Whitelaw Reid. Mr. Mills is a 
member of the Century, Metropolitan, Union, Union League, 
Knickerbocker, and other clubs, and a trustee of the Metropolitan 
Museum of Art and of the Museimi of Natural History, and is an 
active worker in and generous benefactor of various other insti- 
tutions and enterprises for the public good. He I'emains, as he 
has always been, a man of quiet tastes, of methodical habits, 
and of unflagging industry. He is in his own hfe a constant 
exemplification of the theories of industry, intelligence, and 
economy which he advocates, and he has himself demonstrated 
their beneficence to the individual and to the community. He 
gives close personal attention to all the departments of his vast 
and varied business interests, without ever permitting business 
to make him its slave. Commanding the gratitude of many and 
the respect of all, and maintaining his own integrity of physical 
health, intellectual acumen, and moral character, he embodies in 
himself a fine type of the successful and pubhc-spirited American 
citizen. 



JOHN PIERPONT MORGAN 



THE Morgan family, which for several generations has been 
conspicuous in commerce, finance, and the public service, is 
of Welsh origin, as the name implies. It was planted in this 
country by two brothers. Miles and James Morgan, who settled 
in Massachusetts in 1636. From the latter were descended 
Charles Morgan, the founder of the Morgan Railroad and Steam- 
ship lines ; Edwin D. Morgan, the merchant and famous War 
Grovernor of New York ; David P. Morgan, the banker and 
broker ; Greorge Denisou Morgan, Edwin B. Morgan, and other 
men conspicuous in business and public life. From Miles Mor- 
gan were also descended various men of note, foremost among 
them in the last generation being Junius Spencer Morgan, who, 
after a prosperous career as a merchant in Hartford, Connecticut, 
and Boston, Massachusetts, became, in 1854, the partner of George 
Peabody, the famous banker and philanthropist. Ten years later 
he succeeded Mr. Peabody, and made the banking house of J. S. 
Morgan & Co. one of the foremost in the world. He married 
Juliet Pierpont, a woman of exceptional force of character, and 
a daughter of the Rev. John Pierpont of Boston. Their first 
child, bom at Hartford, Connecticut, on April 17, 1837, is the 
subject of this biography. 

John Pierpont Morgan inherited from both his parents the 
mental and spu-itual characteristics which distinguished them, 
and at an early age inclined toward the business in which his 
father had achieved his greatest success. He was finely edu- 
cated, at the English High School in Boston, and at the Univer- 
sity of Gottingen in Germany. At the age of twenty years he 
returned to America to become a banker. With that end in view 
he entered the private banking house of Duncan, Sherman & 
Co., one of the foremost in New York city, and devoted himself 



JOHN PIERPONT MORGAN 273 

to a thorough mastery of the business. This he achieved to so 
good purpose that at the end of three years he was appointed 
the American agent and attorney of George Peabody & Co., a 
place which he continued to hold after his father's firm had 
succeeded Mr. Peabody. In 1864: he engaged in banking on his 
own account, as a member of the firm of Dabney, Morgan & Co. 
of New York. This firm confined its dealings to legitimate in- 
vestment securities, and thus achieved much success and won 
enviable reputation for trustworthiness. Finally, in 1871, Mr. 
Morgan became the junior partner of the firm of Drexel, Morgan 
& Co., one of the foremost banking houses of America; and 
through the death of the elder partners he is now its head, and 
thus probably the greatest private banker in this country and 
one of the greatest in the world. 

Mr. Morgan has made a specialty of reorganizing railroad com- 
panies and restoring them to prosperity. Among the railroads 
with which he has thus been connected may be recalled the 
Albany and Susquehanna, in dealing with which he won a 
notable victory over strong opponents in 1869 ; the West Shore ; 
the Philadelphia and Reading; the Richmond Terminal and its 
successor, the Southern ; the Erie, the New England, and others. 
He has also done similar work in other departments of industry. 
For example, when the great pubhshing house of Harper & 
Brothers failed, in November, 1899, it was he, whose firm was the 
principal creditor, who took the lead in reorganization and in 
placing the compauy on a sound footing again. He has likewise 
been identified with the placing upon the market of large issues 
of government bonds. In 1877, in cooperation with August 
Belmont and the Rothschilds, he fioated two hundred and sixty 
million dollars of four-per-cent. bonds. In February, 1895, the 
Belmont-Morgan syndicate successfully placed another great 
issue of United States bonds. Indeed, for years Mr. Morgan's 
firm has been recognized as one of the foremost in America for 
such enterprises. 

The business corporations in which Mr. Morgan is interested 
as an investor and as a director include the National Bank of 
Commerce, the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad, 
the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railroad, the West Shoi'e 
Raihoad, the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad, the 



274 JOHN PIEBPONT MOKGAN 

Pullman Palace Car Company, the Mexican Telegraph Company, 
the Western Union Telegraph Company, the Manufacturing 
Investment Company, the Federal Steel Company, the General 
Electric Company, the Madison Square Garden Company, the 
Metropolitan Opera House, and numerous others. 

Mr. Morgan takes a keen interest in yachting, and for years 
has exerted a dominant influence over that fine sport in Ameri- 
can waters. He has been one of the chief patrons of the Ameri- 
can boats in the series of international races for the famous 
Americans cup, and is largely to be credited with the success in 
keeping that coveted trophy on this side of the Atlantic. He is 
himself the owner of the Corsair, one of the largest and finest 
steam- yachts afloat. His patronage of grand opera, literature, 
and art, and his leadership in all movements for the higher wel- 
fare of his fellows, are well known. 

The list of Mr. Morgan's benefactions to various good causes 
is a long and impressive one. He gave, in 1897, one milhon 
dollars to the Society of the Lying-in Hospital of the city of 
New York for a new building. He gave five hundred thousand 
dollars to the Auchmuty Industrial School ; three hundred and 
sixty thousand dollars to St. George's Protestant Episcopal 
Church, New York, for its memorial parish house ; a large sum, 
the exact amount of which has not been revealed, to the new 
Protestant Episcopal Cathedral in New York ; a fine collection 
of gems to the American Museum of Natui-al History ; twenty- 
five thousand dollars for the mortgage on the Protestant Episco- 
pal Chui'ch of the Redeemer in New York; a fine chapel at 
Highland Falls, New York, where he makes his summer home ; 
ten thousand dollars to the public Ubrary at Holyoke, Massa- 
chusetts ; and twenty-five thousand dollars for the electric light- 
ing of St. Paul's Cathedral, London, England. 

Mr. Morgan is a member of the Metropolitan, Union League, 
Century, Union, Knickerbocker, Tuxedo, Riding, Racquet, 
Lawyers', Whist, Players', New York Yacht, Seawanhaka-Corin- 
thian Yacht, and other clubs of New York, and of others else- 
where in this and other countries. He has been twice married, 
and occupies one of the foremost places in the social world of the 
American metropoUs, besides being a welcome visitor wherever 
he may go about the world. 




y^^-.zL /^^^%^>/Str 



LEVI PARSONS MORTON 



GEORGE MORTON, or Moui-t, born in Yorkshire, England, 
in 1585, and married, in 1612, to Juliana Carpenter, 
daughter of Alexander Carpenter, was the chief manager of the 
Mayflower enterprise in 1620. He did not come over in that 
vessel, but followed in the third Pilgrim ship, the Anne, in 1623, 
and settled at Middleboro, Massachusetts. He was the author 
of "Mourt's Relation," which book, pubhshed in London in 
1622, gave the earliest account of the Pilgrim enterprise. From 
him the unbroken hne of descent is traced as follows: John 
Morton, freeman of Plymouth, deputy to the General Court, 
and original proprietor of Middleboro ; John Morton, Jr., master 
of the first public school in America, who married Mary Ring, 
daughter of Andrew Ring; Captain Ebenezer Morton, who 
married Mercy Foster, daughter of John and Hannah (Stetson) 
Foster; Ebenezer Morton, Jr., who married Hannah Dailey, 
daughter of Daniel and Hannah Dailey of Easton, Maine ; and 
the Rev. Daniel 0. Morton, who was graduated at Middlebury 
College, Vermont, in 1812, and who married Lucretia Parsons, 
daughter of the Rev. Justin and Electa (Frairy) Parsons. 

Levi Parsons Morton, son of the Rev. Daniel O. and Lucretia 
Parsons Morton, was born at Shoreham, Vermont, on May 16, 
1824, and was educated at the local schools and academy. He 
began his business career at Enfield, Massachusetts, removed 
thence to Hanover, New Hampshire, and next, at the age of 
twenty-one, became a dry-goods dealer on his own account, at 
Concord, New Hampshhe. A few years later he removed to 
Boston, and finally to New York city, where he became the head 
of the leading dry-goods houses of Morton & Grinnell. In 1863 
he opened an office as banker and broker, under the name of 



275 



276 LEVI PARSONS MORTON 

L. P. Morton & Co., with a branch in London known as Morton, 
Bums & Co. In 1869 Geoi'ge Bliss entered the New York 
house, which then became Morton, BUss & Co., and Su- John 
Rose entered that in London, which became Morton, Rose & 
Co. These two names were thereafter, for many years, synony- 
mous the world over with financial strength and integrity. 
From 1873 to 1884 the London house was the Eui'opean fiscal 
agent of the United States government, led the way in aiding 
the resumption of specie payments, and was the mediiun 
through which the Geneva award of fifteen million dollars was 
paid. The house of Morton, Bliss & Co. went into voluntary 
hquidation in 1899, and was succeeded by the Morton Trust 
Company, one of the chief financial institutions of New York. 

Mr. Morton has long been a leader of the Republican party. 
He was elected to Congress in 1878, and made a most useful 
Representative. He declined nomination for the Yice-Presidency 
in 1880, and the next year dechned appointment as Secretary of 
the Navy. In the latter year, however, he accepted appointment 
as minister to France, and in that office had a brilliant and use- 
ful career. In 1888 he was elected Vice-President of the United 
States, and for four years filled that place with dignity and 
honor. Finally, in 1894, he was elected Grovemor of New York 
State by the phenomenal majority of a hundred and fifty 
thousand, and gave the State an admirable administration. 

IVIr. Morton was married, in 1856, to Lucy Kimball, who died 
in 1871. In 1873 he married Miss Annie Street of New York, 
who has borne him five daughters. He makes his home in New 
York city, and at the splendid estate of Ellerslie, on the Hudson, 
and is a member of many of the best clubs and other organiza- 
tions. He possesses the degree of LL. D., given by Dartmouth 
CoUege in 1881 and by Middlebury College in 1883. 





c^ 




ROBERT FRATER MUNRO 



ROBERT FRATER MUNRO was born on August 28, 1852, 
at Inverness, in the Highlands of Scotland, where his father 
was a well-known wool merchant. His mother's name was 
Margaret Frater, and his ancestors on both sides were sturdy 
farmers in the north of Scotland. Mr. Munro received his 
education in his native town, and commenced his business career 
there in the office of the Highland Railway Company. 

At the age of twenty he went to London, for nine years. He 
chose the profession of pubhc accountant, and having served 
the prescribed term of five years as clerk, and passed the neces- 
sary examinations, he was admitted a member of the Chartered 
Accountants in England and "Wales. As clerk and later as 
managing clerk in the office of Messrs. Price, Waterhouse & 
Co., he had exceptional opportunities for experience in his 
profession. His work embraced the audit and exammation of 
accounts of banks, railway companies, firms, and stock companies, 
the organization of companies, and the administration of trustee- 
ships, receiverships, etc. He received valuable training in his 
career as a chartered accountant in England, in the capacities of 
acting receiver and manager of various mdustrial enterprises. 

In 1882 certain of his friends who were interested in 
American railroads prevailed on Mr. Munro to make a three 
years' trip to the United States, for the purpose of looking after 
then interests. Mr. Munro accepted the position of controller 
of the six railroads then owned by the Cincinnati, New Orleans 
and Texas Pacific Railway Company, with headquarters at Cin- 
cinnati. Within a few weeks after his arrival in this country, 
the overissue of capital stock of the Cincinnati, New Orleans and 
Texas Pacific Railway, by the secretary, was unearthed. This 



278 ROBEBT FBATEB MUNBO 

official died suddenly, having destroyed aU his papers. This 
made the investigation very complicated, and Mr. Munro re- 
ceived much credit for unraveling and making plain what seemed 
a hopeless mass of entangled figures, wrapped up in the mazes 
of twelve different bank-accoimts. At the end of three and a 
half years Mr. Mimro resigned the office of controller and trav- 
eled for some months in the United States and Em'ope. 

The American Cotton Oil Trust was organized about this time, 
and Mr. Mimro was invited to join the enterprise, which he did, 
undertaking the task of consolidating the different properties 
and organizing the commercial part of the business. Trusts 
were then in their infancy, and the Cotton Oil was second to the 
Standard Oil. Later, owing to the pubhc opposition to trusts, 
the American Cotton Oil Company was formed, and succeeded 
to the property and business of the Cotton Oil Trust. Mr. 
Munro is vice-president of the company. He is also a director, 
and a member of the executive committee. He is president of 
various companies aUied to the American Cotton Oil Company, 
including the Union Oil Company, New Orleans ; the American 
Cotton Oil Company, Cincinnati; the Robert B. Brown Oil 
Company, St. Louis ; the National Cotton Oil Company, Texas ; 
the Mississippi Cotton Oil Company; the New Orleans Acid 
and FertiUzer Company ; and the Kanawha Insurance Company, 
New York. He is also a director of the W. J. Wilcox Lard and 
Refining Company, New York, and the N. K. Fairbank Com- 
pany, Chicago and St. Louis. 

Mr. Munro is a member of the Washington Heights Club, the 
British Schools and Universities Club, and the Chicago Club. 
He is a life member and a manager of the St. Andrew's Society 
of the State of New York. 

He married, in 1891, Miss A. Nada Swasey, daughter of the 
late John B. Swasey, a prominent merchant of Boston, with 
houses in Melbourne and London. Mrs. Munro is an accom- 
phshed musician. Their only child is a son, William Frater 
Munro. 



S>S) 




WALTER D. MUNSON 



FOR many years a great and increasingly important share 
of the commerce of the United States has been in con- 
nection with the various countries, continental and insular, 
lying directly to the south, about the basin of the Gulf of Mexico 
and the Caribbean Sea. Chief among the countries in question 
are, of course, Mexico and Cuba. Their proximity to the United 
States and the reciprocal needs and abilities to supply those 
needs have made them a natural part of the commercial system 
of this country, and have led to the establishment of great lines 
of 'transportation and travel between the ports of the United 
States and their chief ports. 

Conspicuous among such hnes is the well-known Munson 
Steamship Line, with its splendid fleet of vessels sailing from 
New York directly to Matanzas, Cardenas, Sagua, Caibarien, 
Nuevitas, Gibara, Puerto Padre, and Baracoa — the only direct 
line, in fact, to those ports. The founder and head of this line 
is Walter D. Munson, native of Connecticut. 

At the outbreak of the Civil War Mr. Munson entered the 
military service of the nation, and through faithful discharge of 
duties in the field in various campaigns rose to the rank of 
major. With the return of peace he devoted himself to com- 
mercial pursuits, and was engaged therein for fifteen years in 
Havana, Cuba. Then, in 1882, he came to New York city and 
established the Munson Steamship Line. 

In addition to the Munson Line from New York direct to Cuban 
ports, Mr. Munson has a line of steamers from Nova Scotia to 
Havana, and another from the Gulf ports of the United States to 
Havana. His ships carry a large proportion of the traffic between 
the United States and Canada on the one hand, and Cuba and 



279 



280 



WALTEE D. MUNSON 



Mexico on the other, especially of the sugar which is brought 
from Cuba to New York and Philadelphia and Boston. 

Mr. Munson is president and a director of the Munson Steam- 
ship Line and of the Cameron Steamship Line. He devotes his 
attention to these interests, to the practical exclusion of all other 
business. He has not mingled in political activities, save to dis- 
charge the duties of a private citizen. 

He is a member of the (xrand Ai-my of the Republic and of 
the New York Club. In the borough of Brooklyn, New York, 
where he makes his home, he is a trustee and treasurer of the 
Froebel Academy. 

Mr. Mimson is married, and his eldest son, C. W. Munson, is 
now associated with him in business, being vice-president of the 
Mimson Steamship Line. 

The passenger ships of the Munson Line saihng from New York 
are the Curityba, the OUnda, the Laueniurg, and the Ardanrose. 
These are lai'ge, stanch, full-powered steamships, admirably 
adapted for both passenger and freight traffic, with all apph- 
ances for speed, comfort, and safety. They rim upon schedule 
time with marked regularity, and offer to the traveler, whether 
for business or pleasure, a most desirable means of reaching 
some of the most attractive and important Cuban cities directly 
from New York. The company also issues letters of credit for 
the security of its patrons. Its agencies are found in nearly aU 
the chief cities of the world. 




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LEWIS NIXON 



THE Nixon family, of Scotch-Irish extraction, came from 
the North of Ireland about 1710, and settled in New 
Jersey. There its members took an active and prominent part 
in social, business, and poUtical affairs. Thi-ee generations ago 
four brothers of the family went to Virginia and settled in Lou- 
doun County. That was early in the present century. The 
grandson of one of them, Joel Lewis Nixon, married Mary Jane 
Turner, a member of the famous Fauquier family of Tui'uers, well- 
known in the history of the Old Dominion. He was successively a 
farmer, school-teacher, merchant, justice of magistrate's court, 
and colonel of the Virginia militia. 

Lewis Nixon, son of the above-mentioned couple, was bom at 
Leesbm-g, Virginia, on April 7, 1861. His early education was 
acquired in private and pubhc schools at Leesburg, including the 
Leesbm-g Academy. In 1878 he was appointed a cadet midship- 
man in the United States Naval Academy, at Annapohs, and in 
1882 was graduated first in his class. Then, by an-angement be- 
tween the United States and British governments, he was sent 
to take a course in naval architectm-e, marine engineering, and 
gunnery at the Royal Naval College, at Greenwich, England. 
While in Europe he studied, under government orders, at all the 
great ship, gun, and armor works of England and France. 

On his return to the United States, Mr. Nixon was ordered on 
duty at the famous shipyard of John Roach, at Chester, Penn- 
sylvania, in connection with the construction of the first foiu* 
ships of the new United States navy, then in progress there. 
Next he served under the Chief Constructor at Washington, also 
in the Brooklyn Navy-Yard. Thereafter he was sent on duty 
to Cramp's shipyard, and placed on various boards, so that he 



281 



282 LEWIS NIXON 

was in a great degree identified with the design and construction 
of nearly the entire present navy of the United States. In 1890 
he was intrusted by Secretary Tracy with the task of designing 
the battle-ships Oregon, Indiana, and MassacJiusetts. 

In the fall of 1890 Mr. Nixon resigned from the naval service 
of the United States, and became the superintending constructor 
of the great ship-building works of Cramp & Sons, of Philadel- 
phia. He remained with that company until 1895, during which 
time it built the Indiana, Massachusetts, Columbia, Minneapolis, 
loiva, and Brooklyn for the United States navy, and the Amer- 
ican Line steamers St. Lotds and St. Paul, besides many other 
lesser ships. After his resignation he was still retained by the 
Cramps in a consulting capacity. He then purchased the Cres- 
cent Shipyard, at EHzabethport, New Jersey, where he has since 
built numerous vessels, including the Annapolis, Vixen, Man- 
grove, Monitor, Florida, and torpedo-boats O^Brien and Nichol- 
son, for the United States navy, the Holland submarine boat, 
various yachts, and numerous steamers for North, South, and 
Central America. 

He is sole proprietor of the Crescent Shipyard, president of 
the International Smokeless Powder and Dynamite Company, 
vice-president of the New York Auto-truck Company, director 
of the Idaho Exploration and Mining Company, and trustee of 
the Webb Academy and Home for Ship-builders. 

Mr. Nixon became a member of Tammany Hall in 1886, and 
is now, by appointment of Mayor Van Wyck, president of the 
new East River Bridge Commission, and is a member of the 
Tammany Hall Executive Committee. He is a member of the 
Union, Democratic, Press, Seneca, New York Yacht, Atlantic 
Yacht, and Richmond County Country clubs of New York; 
the Metropolitan, and Army and Navy, of Washington ; the 
Rittenhouse of Philadelphia; the Mattano of Elizabeth, New 
Jersey ; the New York Chamber of Commerce, the New York 
Board of Trade and Transportation, and the Society of Naval 
Architects and Marine Engineers. He is also a fellow of the 
American Greographical Society. 

He was married, on Jamxary 29, 1891, to Miss Sally Lewis 
Wood, a descendant of Greneral Andrew Lewis of Virginia. 
They have one son, Stanhope Wood, born in 1894, 







■■^■^^w/^ 




M. J. O'BRIEN 



COLONEL M. J. O'BRIEN, president of the Southern Ex- 
press Company, has described the beginning of his business 
career as a case of " either fish or cut bait." That is to say, he 
was confronted by absolute necessity. At seven and a half years 
old he had lost his parents and was compelled to go to work to 
earn his own living and to contribute to the support of his sisters. 
It is not to be supposed that he at once accomplished both those 
aims. That was impossible. But he began in real earnest, and 
steadily worked his way toward such accomplishment. 

His first occupation was that of attending to a printing-roller 
in the publishing-house of John Mm-phy & Co., in Baltimore, 
Maiyland, for which he received a salary of twenty-five cents a 
week. At that time, also, he began to go to school, at first attend- 
ing a night-school, and later one conducted by the Sisters of 
Charity. Still later, when he was able to do it, he paid for 
insti-uction, for he was a strong believer in the best possible 
education. He declares that, if he had to live his life over again, 
his first aim would be to get a college education. 

From the printing-house he went to a wholesale drug store, 
where he at first opened and swept the store and did similar jobs, 
but in time rose to be a fully qualified druggist. But all the time 
he had an increasing liking for the express business. So when he 
was old enough and strong enough for the work he went to the 
office of the Adams Express Company and applied for a job. So 
persistent was he that at last the manager told him he could have 
a job as diiver of a wagon if he would go to Memphis, Tennessee, 
and would start thither the day after the next, to wit, the Fourth 
of July. The young man borrowed thirty dollars and started. 
Arrived at Memphis, he paid his last remaining twenty-five cents 

283 



284: M. J. O'BRIEN 

to a man for teaching him how to harness a horse, and then be- 
gan work as an expressman. 

Out of his salary of thirty dollars a month he paid twenty-five 
dollars for board, and it was not easy to save enough to repay the 
loan on which he had gone to Memphis. In time he did so, how- 
ever, and then he kept on saving. In time he was promoted to 
he a shipping clerk, then cashier in the New Orleans office of the 
company. Various other estabhshments, including a bank, had 
made offers for his service, but he stuck to the express business. 

When the Civil War broke out he was inflamed with patriotism 
for the South, and went to Baltimore, hoping there to join a 
Confederate regiment. But the express business was so heavy 
that he was persuaded to take a temporary appointment in the 
Washington office of the Adams Company. There he served for 
six months, and then made his way South and entered the Con- 
federate service on the gunboat BienriUe. Before he saw any 
active service, however, the immature fleet was destroyed to pre- 
vent its falling into Union hands. Then he went to Richmond, 
hoping to get a commission for the field. But again he was per- 
suaded by the Confederate Secretary of the Treasmy to reenter 
the express business, in special charge of shipments of money to 
Southern points. While thus engaged he was appointed by 
Robert Ould, Commissioner for the Exchange of Prisoners, to 
his bureau, and was attached to the staff of Major W. H. Hatch. 

At the end of the war Colonel O'Brien promptly returned to 
the ways and occupations of peace. His first love had been the 
express business, and to it he proved faithful. Before the war, 
it may be remembered, the Adams Express Company did a gen- 
eral business throughout the South. But in 1860 Henry B. 
Plant, representing all the Southern stock-holders in that com- 
pany, piu-chased in their behalf all the rights, titles, contracts, 
etc., of the company in the Southern States, and thus organized 
a new corporation, kuo\\Ti as the Southern Express Company. 
It was with this that Colonel O'Brien was connected during 
the war. The end of the war left that company undisturbed, and 
he retained his connection with it. He was for a time in charge 
of its interests at Atlanta. Thence he went to Augusta to be- 
come the confidential clerk of Mr. Plant, the president of the 
company. From this place he was soon promoted, in 1868, to be 



M. J. o'bbien 285 

the general superintendent of the company. At a later date he 
became vice-president and general manager, and in those offices 
was for many years the active head of the corporation, for Mr. 
Plant had so many other important interests that he was able to 
o-ive only a fraction of his time and attention to the express 
business. 

As general superintendent and then as general manager Colonel 
O'Brien achieved the major part of the great development of the 
Southern Express Company. With characteristic energy he 
personally traveled all over the South, establishing new agencies, 
enlarging old ones, making contracts, and in general promoting 
the welfare and increasing the patronage of the company. At 
the time of Mr. Plant's death, in 1899, the company was doing 
business on nearly thkty thousand miles of railroad, and in nearly 
every town from the Potomac River to the Rio Grande. Colonel 
O'Brien received from time to time tempting offers from other 
express companies, and from railroads, banks, and other corpo- 
rations, to enter their employment on flattering terms, but un- 
hesitatingly decUned them all, deciding to stick to the enterprise 
in which he had attained so great a measure of success. 

Henry B. Plant died in June, 1899. At that time Colonel 
O'Brien was in Em-ope. He was informed by cable of Mr. Plant's 
death, and immediately returned home. On July 11, 1899, a 
meeting of the board of directors of the Southern Express Com- 
pany was held in New York city, and Colonel O'Brien was thereat 
elected president, to succeed Mr. Plant. That office he continues 
to fill, with the success and distinction that marked his service 
in other capacities for the same corporation. 

Colonel O'Brien feels that he owed much to Mr. Plant for his 
encouragement, and he in turn is disposed to encourage and 
assist all worthy young men with whom he comes in contact. 
It is his creed that there is no royal road to success ; circum- 
stances play their part in every man's career, but success de- 
pends more upon self than iipon luck. Above all, he beUeves in 
and preaches the gospel of perseverance. " Stick to whatever 
you undertake after mature deliberation " is his motto, the value 
of which he has demonstrated in a signal manner in his own 
career. 



DANIEL O'DAY 



DANIEL O'DAY, the well-known operator in oil, manufac- 
turer, and banker, is of Irish origin. He was born iu 
Ireland on February 6, 1844, the son of Michael O'Day. When 
he was only a year old he was brought to the United States by 
his family, which joined in the great tide of migration which at 
that time set hither from Ireland. His entii*e life has, therefore, 
practically been identified with this country. 

The family, on coming hither, settled at Buffalo, New York, 
and in the pubhc schools of that city Daniel O'Day acquired his 
education, and in that city began his business career. His boy- 
hood was cast in the days of the oil excitement, when men were 
" striking oil " and making fortunes in a day. He was only ten 
years old when the Pennsylvania Rock Oil Company was organ- 
ized and began operations at Oil Creek, Pennsylvania. For four 
years that concern struggled along with varying fortunes, and 
then it leased its land, near the present site of TitusviUe, Penn- 
sylvania, to a few of its stock-holdei'S for their private enterprise. 
They set Colonel E. A. Drake to work on it, drilling an artesian 
well. He first tried to dig a well in one of the old timbered pits 
which had been abandoned by the oil-seekers, but he was baf&ed 
by quicksands. Then he started to drive an iron pipe down in 
a new place. At the depth of thirty-six feet he struck bed-rock. 
Thereupon he engaged men to drill the rock, and for month after 
month the tedious work went on. On August 29, 1859, the 
drill entered an open crevice in the rock, six inches deep. That 
was only sixty-nine feet down. The next day the well was 
found to be nearly fuU of oil. 

That was the first striking of oil. It was the signal for such 
a rush as not even the finding of gold in California or in the 



286 




/ft^/^xi?^ 



DANIEL o'dAY 287 

Klondike could boast. Speculators and opei"ators flocked thither 
from all over the country. Farm-lands were in a twinkling 
worth more than city lots. Much of the effort was ill directed 
and frviitless ; but enough of it was successful for the develop- 
ment of one of the most gigantic industries of the world. 

The city of Buffalo was near enough to the oil region to feel 
the full force of the " boom," and young Mr. O'Day did not take 
long to decide upon trying his fortunes in the new field. He was 
twenty years of age when he went into the oil region of Pennsyl- 
vania, not as a speculator nor as an operator, but to seek 
employment in the oil transportation business. In that he was 
successful, and before many years had passed was in a position 
in which he could himself begin to direct an important business. 

The transportation of the crude oil to refineries, the latter 
often at a considerable distance, was at first effected by railroad, 
the oil being inclosed in tanks, casks, or other receptacles. But 
in time the idea of pumping it, or letting it flow by gravity 
through pipes laid across the country, was successfully devel- 
oped. In this work Mr. O'Day was a pioneer. In 1873-74 he 
began constructing pipe lines in the oil-producing regions. The 
first of these extended from the oil-fields of Clarion County, 
Pennsylvania, to Emlenton, Venango County, Pennsylvania, and 
was known as the American Transfer Line. It was highly suc- 
cessful, and following it Mi-. O'Day built various other such 
lines. In time the process of consolidation, so familiar in other 
industrial enterprises, came into play. The various pipe hues 
were consolidated under a common management and operated in 
harmony. Thus the American Transfer Lines were merged into 
the United Pipe Lines system, and the latter is now in operation 
as the gathering system of the National Transit Company. 

The last-named corporation was organized in 1883, and now 
owns a vast netwoi-k of trunk and local lines, extending over 
nearly all of the oil-producing region of the eastern part of the 
United States. Mr. O'Day was a prominent factor in the organi- 
zation of it, and he has been its vice-president since 1888. 

Mr. O'Day has not confined his attention to the oil transporta- 
tion business. He founded and is the senior partner in the Oil 
City Boiler Works, a large and prosperous manufacturing con- 
cern. In 1888 he entered the oil-producing field, as organizer 



288 DANIEL o'DAY 

and president of the Northwestern Ohio National Gas Com- 
pany. This corporation has a capital of six milhon dollars, 
and owns extensive tracts of land from which it produces oil and 
natural gas. It has also an extensive system of pipe lines for 
conveying its products to consumers. 

Mr. O'Day's financial standing and high repute have naturally 
caused him to be associated with banking interests. He has for 
many years been the president of the People's Bank of Buffalo, 
New York, in which city he has ever maintained a deep interest, 
and he is a director of the Seaboard National Bank of New York 
city, and of several other banks in Buffalo and Oil City. In 
these and all other business relations he is universally respected 
for his abihty and integrity. He is regarded as a most efficient 
executive officer and as a safe and sagacious business man. 

Ml". O'Day makes his home in New York city, where he has a 
fine house on West Seventy-second Street. He is a member of 
the Engineers', Lotus, and Manhattan clubs of New York, of the 
Buffalo Club of Buffalo, and of the Duquesne Club of Pittsburg, 
and other social organizations. 




ALEXANDER ECTOR ORR 



ALEXANDER ECTOR ORR comes fi'om the famous Scot- 
JTA- tish clan of MacOregor, a branch of which removed from 
Scotland to Ireland in the latter part of the seventeenth centmy, 
settling in the province of Ulster. In the last generation Wil- 
liam Orr of Strahane, County Tyi-one, married Mary Moore, 
daughter of David Moore of Sheephill, County Londonderry, 
and to them, at Strahane, on March 2, 1831, Alexander Ector 
Orr was bom. 

It was intended that he should enter the East India Com- 
pany's service, and a presentation to its college in England was 
obtained ; but at the age of fifteen an accident occurred which 
kept him on crutches for three years, and that plan had to be 
abandoned. As soon as he was able he resumed his studies with 
the Rev. John Hayden, Archdeacon of the diocese of Deny and 
Raphoe. In 1850, his physician recommending a sea voyage, he 
crossed and recrossed the Atlantic in a sailing-vessel, and thus 
visited several of the seaboard cities of the United States. He 
was so favorably impressed with them that in the autumn of the 
following year he returned to New York, and obtained a situa- 
tion in the office of Ralph Post, a shipping and commission 
merchant on South Street. Later he served in the office of 
Wallace & Wicks, and finally, in 1858, entered the office of David 
Dows & Co. In 1861 he was admitted to partnership in the 
latter firm, where he has amassed a fortune, and has exerted a 
commanding influence in the aifairs of the city and nation. 

Mr. Orr is one of the foremost members of the Produce 
Exchange. He has twice been its president, and was secretary 
of the committee that had charge of the work of erecting its 



289 



290 ALEXANDEE ECTOR ORR 

btiildiBg. He was for eight years chairman of its arbitration 
committee, and one of those who perfected its gratuity system. 

In 1872 Mr. Orr was elected a member of the Chamber of 
Commerce of the State of New York, and after serving upon 
some of its important committees was in 1889 made its first vice- 
president. This position he held till 1894, when he was elected 
president, and continued in that office for five successive years. 

Mr. Orr is a member of the American Geographical Society, 
the Down Town Association, the City Club, the Hamilton Club 
of Brooklyn, the Marine and Field Club, the Atlantic Yacht 
Club, and other organizations. He is also a director of numer- 
ous banks and trust, insurance, and railroad companies. He is a 
member of the Protestant Episcopal Church, a trustee of its 
cathedral and schools at Garden City, Long Island, and treasurer 
of that diocese. 

Mr. Orr was a trustee of the fund left by the late Governor 
Tilden to found a public library in New York, and took an active 
part in consoUdating that estate with the Astor and Lenox 
libraries into the "New York PubUc Library." 

One of the most important public services rendered by Mr. 
Orr has been in connection with the rapid-transit enterprise in 
New York under municipal ownership. He has been President 
of the Board of Rapid Transit Commissioners since its creation 
by the Legislature, and has been foremost in directing the labors 
of that body which, after years of effort, were crowned in the 
early part of 1900 by the adoption of the plans of the com- 
missioners, and the letting of a contract for the construction of 
a great system of underground rapid transit. Work upon this 
vast enterprise was actually begun with public ceremonies, in 
which Mr. Orr took fitting part, on March 24, 1900. 

Mr. Orr was married, in 1856, to Miss Juliet Buckingham 
Dows, daughter of Ammi Dows, a member of the firm of David 
Dows & Co. She died a few years later, and in 1873 he married 
Margaret Shippen Liiquer, daughter of Nicholas Luquer of 
Brooklyn. She is a member of the Shippen family, which for 
two and a half centuries has been prominently identified with 
the city of Philadelphia and State of Pennsylvania. Mr. and 
Mrs. OiT have three children : Jane Dows Orr, now Mi-s. I. B. 
Vies ; Mary Orr ; and Juliet Ector Orr, now Mrs. A. H. Munsell. 



NORTON PRENTISS OTIS 



rflHE founder of the Otis family in this country was John 
J- Otis, who came from Hingham, England, a few years 
after the Mayflower Pilgrims, and settled in Massachusetts. Later 
generations of the family made their home in Vermont, and there, 
at HaUfax, Norton Prentiss Otis was born, on March 18, 1840. 
His family made several changes of residence during his boyhood, 
and his education was acquired in various places, including 
Albany, New York, Hudson City, New Jersey, and Yonkers, 
New York. 

His father, Elisha O. Otis, who was the inventor of the 
modern elevator, had founded in 1855 a small elevator factory. 
The son entered that factory in 1858 and learned the business. 
His father died in 1861, and then the son, in partnership with 
his brother, Charles R. Otis, took full charge. 

The whole capital of the firm was then less than two thousand 
dollars ; the plant was inadequate ; and the Civil War made 
the time seem unpropitious for a business venture. Nevertheless, 
the young men persevered, and succeeded. They invented and 
patented various devices for the safety of passengers on the 
elevators, and these gave them an advantage over competitors. 
Year by year their business increased. Year by year the output 
of their factory improved in quality and design. To-day the 
business of the company is world-wide. Wherever there are 
modern buildings there are elevators, and wherever there are 
elevators the name of Otis is known. The firm was long ago 
incorporated, Mr. Otis becommg its treasurer. He became its 
president on the retirement of his brother in 1890. On January 
1, 1899, the Otis Elevator Company was organized, taking over 
the property patents and business of Otis Brothers & Company 

■291 



292 NOETON PRENTISS OTIS 

and a number of other manufacturing concerns m the same line, 
and Mr, Otis, wishing to be retired in a measure from the cares 
of active business, was made chairman of the board of directors, 
retaining, however, the position of president of the Otis Electric 
Company. 

The factories of the corporation are at Yonkers, New York, 
covering several acres of land, and employing seven hundi-ed men. 
It is said that three fourths of the elevators now in use in New 
York are of Otis Brothers' make, whUe a large proportion of them 
is also to be found in other large cities throughout the world. 
Among the notable elevators made by Otis Brothers are those in 
the Eiffel Tower, in Paris; twelve, of twelve thousand pounds 
capacity each, for caiTying loaded trucks with teams attached, at 
Grlasgow, Scotland ; one in the Catskill Mountains that carries a 
railroad train up an incline seven thousand feet long in ten min- 
utes ; and one running to the top of Prospect Mountain, Lake 
Greorge. The first great improvement in elevator-building was the 
introduction of steam-power in 1866. Some ten years later 
hydraulic power was utihzed. At a still later date electricity 
was brought into use. In all the successive steps Mr. Otis has 
taken a keen interest, and has himself been a prominent factor. 

Mr. Otis has for many years made his home in the city of 
Yonkers, New York, where the factories of his company are sit- 
uated. In 1880 he was elected Mayor, and gave the city an 
admirable administration. In 1883 he was elected a member of 
the State Legislature. He has also been urged a ntmiber of 
times to accept a nomination for Congress, but for business rea- 
sons was obliged to decline. In 1898 he was appointed by Grov- 
ernor Black a member of a commission of sixteen to represent 
the State of New York at the Paris Exposition of 1900, and he 
was unanimously elected its president. In New York city he is 
well known, and he is a member of the Engineers' Club, the Ful- 
ton Club, and the Metropohtan Museum of Art of New York 
city, and of the Amackassin and Corinthian yacht clubs of 
Yonkers. 

Mr. Otis was married to Miss Lizzie A. Fahs of York, Penn- 
sylvania, on December 25, 1877. 



'%^. 
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FRANCIS ASBURY PALMER 



THE power of wealth and the importance of sound finance 
to the welfare of all legitimate business have long been 
truisms. They are the ready explanation of the influence and 
exceptional rank enjoyed by the banker in the community. 
Indeed, in the largest sense, the money power is one of the great 
powers of the world, since kings and nations are often forced to 
shape theu' courses according to the will of the great inter- 
national bankers, who literally hold the purse-strmgs of govern- 
ments in their hands. In the business or industrial community 
no tyranny is exercised by the banker. His influence is benefi- 
cent. It is for him to promote business, to conserve financial 
integrity, and to make and keep the old saying, " sound as the 
bank," a vital and significant truth. 

The career of a man who was the founder and has for more 
than half a century been president of one of the foremost banks 
in the foremost city of the Western world is, therefore, marked 
with especial interest as that of one who has had a more than 
ordinary important share in promoting the welfare of the com- 
munity, and who is in an exceptional measure identified with the 
financial and commercial greatness of the metropolis. 

Francis Asbury Palmer comes of old English stock, from 
which he doubtless inherits the characteristics which have con- 
tributed to the great success he has attained. His first American 
ancestors were among the Pilgrims who founded a new nation 
on the North Atlantic coast. For some generations they were 
settled in New England, and were identified with the develop- 
ment of those colonies, while at the same time, from the disci- 
pline of pioneer life, they themselves received a further develop- 
ment of those traits of character which make for leadership 



293 



294 FRANCIS ASBUBY PALMEB 

among men and for mastery over material obstacles. From New 
England they migrated into New York, and settled among the 
picturesque hiUs of Westchester County. 

At the old village of Bedford, in that county, on the famous 
Bedford Road, which in ante-revolutionary times was already a 
great highway from the banks of the Hudson River to the Con- 
necticut vaUey, a village which has been the home and bu-thplace 
of many a man of note, dwelt in the last generation Lewis Pahner, 
a farmer, and Mary, his wife. There to them was bom a son, on 
November 26, 1812, to whom they gave the name of Francis 
Asbuiy Palmer. The boy grew up on his father's farm, and 
attended the local schools, finishing his education in the long- 
noted Bedford Academy. 

On reaching manhood he came to New York city, and entered 
business life. His natural aptitude and his force of character 
secured for him a good degree of success, and before he had 
" come to forty year " he was able to enter upon the work with 
which his name is inseparably identified. It was in 1849 that the 
National Bank of New York city was organized. He was at once 
made its first president, and has retained that place down to the 
present time. Amid aU the financial fluctuations and panics the 
metropolis has known, he has held the bank true to the even 
tenor of its way, with undiminished prosperity. 

To this business Mr. Palmer has devoted the chief attention of 
his life. He was, however, called into public service for a time, 
in 1871 and 1872, when he was Chamberlain of the city of New 
York, and had the custody of the city's funds. 

Mr. Palmer has long been identified with the Congregational 
Church, and has liberally contributed to the promotion of various 
rehgious works. 

He was mamed, on October 30, 1834, to Miss Susannah Shel- 
don, who is now deceased. He has no children. 




STEPHEN SQUIRES PALMER 



NOT many men have a wider range of business interests, or 
are identified with a greater number of corporations, than 
the subject of the present sketch. 

Stephen Squires Palmer, who was named after his grand- 
father, is of French Huguenot descent on the paternal side, and 
of Enghsh descent on the maternal side. His father, the late 
David Palmer, was a prominent business man of New York city, 
and was vice-president of the National City Bank. Mr. Palmer, 
the subject of this sketch, was bom in New York city on De- 
cember 7, 1853, and was carefully educated at a number of pri- 
vate schools. It was his plan to enter college, but on the very 
day of his final entrance examination his only brother died, and 
he gave up his collegiate ambition. 

Instead of going to college he went into business as an em- 
ployee of Moses Taylor & Co., the famous commercial house of 
New York, and has ever since been identified with those inter- 
ests, being at the present time a trustee of the Moses Taylor 
estate. 

His business interests, however, as already stated, have greatly 
widened, until the hst of them is a phenomenally long one. 
Thus, Mr. Palmer is president of the Palmer Land Company, 
the Green Bay and Western Railroad Company, the New Jersey 
Zinc Company, the St. Louis and Hannibal Raili-oad Company, 
the Washington Assurance Company, the Harvey Steel Com- 
pany, the Kewaunee, Green Bay and Western Railroad Company, 
the New Jersey Zinc Company of Pennsylvania, and the Palmer 
Water Company; he is a trustee of the Farmers' Loan and 
Trust Company of New York ; he is a treasurer of the Cayuga 
and Susquehanna Railroad Company ; and he is a du-ector 

295 



296 STEPHEN SQUIBES PALMER 

of the American Washer and Manufacturing Company, the 
Bayonne and Greenville Gas Light Company, the Colonial As- 
surance Company, the Consolidated Gas Company of New York, 
the Dickson Manufacturing Company, the Empire Zinc Com- 
pany, the Fort Wayne and Jackson Railroad Company, the 
Lackawamia Iron and Steel Company, the McNeal Pipe and 
Foundry Company, the Mexican National Railroad Company, 
the Mineral Point Zinc Company, the National City Bank of 
New York city, the New Jersey Magnetic Concentrating Com- 
pany, the New York Mutual Gas Light Company, and the Valley 
Railroad Company, besides the various corporations already 
mentioned of which he is also president. 

With this multiplicity of business interests, Mr. Palmer has 
still found time to take an interest in politics, but has held and 
sought no public office. 

He is a member of the Union League, Metropolitan, Players', 
New York Yacht, Tuxedo, Lawyers', and Down-Town clubs, of 
New York, the Essex County Country Club of New Jersey, and 
other social organizations. 

Mr. Palmer's wife died some years ago. He has one son, who 
is a student at Princeton University. 





£^.^^ 



^•^Z^r^y.T-' 






JOHN EDWAUD PARSONS 



JOHN EDWARD PARSONS, who has long been recognized 
as one of the leaders of the New York bar, is of Enghsh 
ancestry. His father, Edward Lamb Parsons, was born in Eng- 
land, and was a member of a family which, though temjwrarily 
residing in Lancashire at the time of his birth, had for many 
generations lived at Cubington and Stoneleigh, in Warwickshire. 
The elder Mr. Parsons came to this country when he was a young 
man, and engaged in business in New York. He lost his life in 
a shipwreck in January, 1839, when on his return home from a 
visit to England. He married Matilda Clark, daughter of Ebe- 
nezer Clark of Wallingford, Connecticut, and to them was bom, in 
New York city, on October 24, 1829, the subject of this sketch. 

The early education of Mr. Parsons was obtained at the board- 
ing-school of Samuel U. Berrian, at Rye, in Westchester County, 
New York. Thence, in 1844, he proceeded to the University of 
the City of New York, as New York University was then called. 
That institution was then in its early years, and was presided 
over by Chancellor Theodore Frelinghuysen. Mr. Parsons pur- 
sued its regular course, which was a high one for those days, and 
was graduated in 1848. It may be added that he was elected a 
member of the council of the university in 1865, and occupied 
that place for about thirty years. 

The year after his graduation from the university Mr. Parsons 
began the study of law in the office of James W. Gerard, who in 
his day was one of the most distinguished lawyers of New York, 
and in 1852 he was admitted to practice at the bar. He opened 
his first office on January 1, 1854, on his own account. On the 
first day of May following he formed a partnei'ship with Lo- 
renzo B. Sheppard. In the following July Mr. Sheppard was 



297 



298 JOHN EDWARD PAESONS 

appointed by Governor Horatio Seymour to be District Attorney 
of the city and county of New York, and be thereupon appointed 
Mr. Parsons to be his assistant. Mr. Parsons filled that place 
until the end of that year, and then retired from it ; and he has 
never since accepted public office. 

A history of Mr. Parsons's law practice would be in large mea- 
sure a histoiy of the bar and courts of New York for the last half 
century. He has won gi'eat success ; he has practised in nearly 
all departments of the law, and he has been conspicuously asso- 
ciated with many of the most noteworthy cases. Among these 
last may be mentioned the suit of Dunham vs. WiUiams, which 
involved the title to disused roads laid out in those parts of 
New York State which were settled by the Dutch ; that of Story 
vs. the elevated railroad companies, which was stubbornly 
fought for many years, and in which finally the Court of Appeals 
decided that the companies were responsible to the owners of 
al)utting properties for injury thereto ; the Hammersly, Burr, 
MeiTill, Fayei'weather, and Tracy wiU cases ; and the famous 
" boodle " case of Jacob Sharp, the street-railroad builder. 

Mr. Parsons was one of the leading lawyers in the htigation 
connected with the downfall of the notorious Tweed Ring. He 
was counsel to the committee of the State Senate which 
reported in favor of declaring Tweed's seat vacant ; counsel be- 
fore the Assembly committee of investigation into the Kings 
County frauds ; counsel before the Assembly committee in the 
case of Henry W. Genet ; and participated in the trial of Genet 
for comphcity in the Tweed Ring frauds. He is a leader in the 
reform movement which led to the impeachment of the judges 
who had been corruptly subservient to Tweed ; he was selected 
by the New York City Bar Association as one of its counsel in 
the initiatory proceedings before the judiciary committee of the 
Assembly ; he was one of the counsel for the prosecution in the 
impeachment trial of Judge Barnard ; and he also took part in 
the trial of Judge McCunn and in the proceedings against Judge 
Cardozo. 

Mr. Parsons has devoted himself largely to corporation law, 
and has been counsel for a number of important business organ- 
izations. He was counsel for the Sugar Trust, and has been 
counsel for its successor, the American Sugar Refining Company, 



JOHN EDWARD PAKSONS 299 

since its organization. In that capacity lie has figured in the 
Utigation and legislative and congressional investigations which 
followed the formation of the Sugar Trust. 

Despite the demands of his professional work, Mr. Parsons 
has found much time to devote to benevolence and philanthropy. 
His long service in the New York University council has already 
been mentioned. He was one of the organizers of the New York 
Cancer Hospital, and has been its president from the beginning. 
He is president of the Woman's Hospital of the State of New 
York, and has been president of the New York Bible Society. 
He is a member of the executive committee of the New York 
City Mission and Tract Societj^, the American Trust Society, and 
the Board of Home Missions of the Presbyterian Church, an 
original member of the board of trustees of the Cooper Union, 
and a member of the board of the American Bible Society. 

Mr. Parsons is a member of the Century Association, the Uni- 
versity, Players', Metropolitan, Riding, City, and Turf clubs of 
New York, and of the Lenox Club of Lenox, Massachusetts. He 
is a member and officer of the Brick Presbyterian Church of 
New York. He is much interested in mission work among the 
poor children of New York, having been for twenty years and 
more at the head of a large mission school, and maintaining at 
his own expense a country home for poor children at Cm-tisville, 
Massachusetts, at which a hundred children are entertained at a 
time during the summer. He has a fine home of his own in New 
York city. He also has a country home at Rye, Westchester 
County, New York, on an estate long owned by his family, and 
another at Lenox, Massachusetts, where his place, " Stonover," 
is one of the most attractive homes and one of the finest model 
farms in that delightful region. 




WILLIAM FREDERICK PIEL, JR. 



THE father and mother of William Frederick Piel were both 
born in Germany. The father came to the United States in 
Augvist, 1842, and settled in Indianapolis, Indiana, where he has 
resided ever since. He was engaged in various mercantile pur- 
suits down to 1867. In that year he entered the starch-making 
industry, and has since that date devoted his attention to it. 

Wilham Frederick Piel, Jr., son of WiUiam Frederick and 
Eleanore C. M. Piel, was born in Indianapohs, on December 25, 
1851. As soon as he was of school age he was sent to the paro- 
chial school, and there remained until he was nearly fourteen 
years old. Then he went to Purdy's Commercial College, Indian- 
apolis, and was there graduated. Next he attended the North- 
western Christian University, now Butler University, until 1867. 
At that time his father organized a company to build and operate 
a starch factory, and he thereupon left school and became book- 
keeper for the concern. This company was known as the Union 
Starch Factory. 

For years Mr. Piel was thus engaged. He was bookkeeper and 
general assistant to his father in conducting the business, and at 
times went upon the road as a traveling salesman of the products 
of the factory. He also, when it seemed desirable, took part in 
the work in the factory, and thus gained a compi'ehensive know- 
ledge of all departments of the business. 

The original factory building was abandoned in 1873, and a 
new one was erected. At the same time the style of the firm 
was changed to that of W. F. Piel & Co. In 1882 Mr. Piel 
became a partner in the business. Again in 1886 there was 

The firm was incorporated as the 



another radical change 



300 



WILLIAM FREDERICK PIEL, JB. 301 

William F. Piel Company, and Mr. Piel was made vice-president, 
treasm'er, and general manager of it. 

In 1890 the National Starch Manufactm-ing Company was 
organized. It pm'chased practically all of the important starch 
factories in the country, twenty in number, and combined their 
businesses under one general management. Of this corporation 
Mr. Piel was at once made vice-president and chairman of the 
executive committee. 

At a later date Mr. Piel was elected president of the National 
Starch Company, which place he still holds. Thus his entire 
business career has been spent in the starch and glucose industry, 
with the exception of nine months in a bank. He has made this 
business a life study, and has witnessed all the stages of its 
development from a rudimentary estate to its present command- 
ing proportions. Nor has he been merely a witness. He has 
himself been one of the foremost leaders in this great develop- 
ment of industry and has contributed to it more than most of his 
contemporaries. He has attained his present place through his 
own energy, integrity, discretion, enterprise, and general business 
abihty, and has, Mkewise, through the same masterful character- 
istics, largely contributed to bringing it to its present great 
proportions. 

Mr. Piel is now president of the National Starch Manufactur- 
ing Company, and is connected officially with the Piel Brothers' 
Manufacturing Company of Indianapolis (makers of children's 
carriage and ratan-ware), and Kipp Brothers Company of Indian- 
apohs, importers and dealers in fancy goods and dniggists' 
sundries. He is a charter member of the Indianapolis Board of 
Trade, has been one of its directors or governors from its organ- 
ization, and was its vice-president in 1889-90. 

He is a member of the Lincoln Club of Brooklyn and an 
associate member of the U. S. Grant Post, G. A. R., of Brooklyn. 

Mr. Piel was married at Indianapolis, on June 18, 1874, to Miss 
Ehzabeth M. Meyer of that city, who has borne him eight 
children: Luda C, Eleanore J. E. (deceased), Theodore L. W. 
(deceased), Alfred L., Elmer W., Wilham W., Erwin L. (de- 
ceased), and Edna H. Piel. 

Mr. and Mrs. Piel have since 1890 lived in Brooklyn, New 
York. 



WINSLOW SHELBY PIERCE 

THE name of Pierce is a familiar one in nearly all parts 
of the United States, and is to be met with frequently 
in national and colonial history, back to the earUest times. 
The precise date of its transplantation to these shores from 
England is not known. This, however, is apparently beyond 
doubt : that it was brought hither some time prior to the year 
1630, and that the first American bearer of it came from North- 
umberlandshire, England. The family quickly rose into deserved 
prominence in the affairs of the New England colonies, where it 
was originally planted, and became allied by intermarriage with 
many other leading families of colonial days. Among these 
connections were those with the families of Fletcher, Bancroft, 
Barron, Prescott, and, as is indicated by the given name of the 
subject of the present sketch, Winslow. All these famihes have 
retained to the present day a goodly measure of their old abihty 
and influence, not only in the communities in which they were 
first planted, but in State and nation at large. 

The last generation of the Pierce family contained a member 
named Winslow Shelby Pierce, a native, as had been many of 
his forebears, of the city of Boston. He entered and practised 
for a time the medical profession in that city, and attained an 
enviable rank in it. Before reaching middle age, however, he 
joined the rising tide of westward-moving New-Englanders, and 
established himself for a time in Illinois. Thence he was borne 
still farther westward by the great gold rush of 1849, and be- 
came one of the pioneers of California. To the development 
of that Territory into a State he contributed much, and he 
became himself Controller of the new State. Thence, in turn, 
he came back eastward, as far as Indiana, where he made his 

302 






i 



WINSLOW SHELBY PIERCE 303 

home for the remainder of his life. He married Jane Thomson 
Hendricks, a member of the well-known Hendricks family of 
Indiana, of which State she was a native. Her ancestors were 
Scotch, Dutch, and French Huguenot, some of them being set- 
tlers in Pennsylvania contemporaneously with William Penn. 
They settled in the Ligonier Valley, some of them afterward 
moving into Ohio and Indiana. 

Winslow Shelby Pierce was born at Shelby ville, Shelby County, 
Indiana, on October 23, 1857. He received his early education 
in the pubhc schools of Indianapolis. From the high school 
there he went to Pennsylvania College, Pennsylvania ; and he 
studied law at the University of Virginia in the summer of 1878. 
He was graduated from the Law Department of the University 
of Michigan, in the class of 1879, and then took a postgraduate 
year at Columbia College, New York. 

Mr. Pierce, with this ample preparation, was admitted to prac- 
tice at the bar of New York in Febriiary, 1883, and since that 
date has been continuously engaged in the pursuit of his profes- 
sion. He has largely been interested in the legal affairs of cor- 
porations, and has made special studies of corporate law. He is 
regularly engaged as counsel for a number of large concerns. 
Among them may be mentioned the Missouri Pacific Railway 
Company, and the Texas and Pacific Railway Company, for each 
of which he is general attorney, and the St. Louis Southwestern 
Railway Company, and the Union Pacific Company, for each of 
which he is general counsel. 

He has held no public office, and has taken no part in political 
affairs beyond that of a private citizen. 

Mr, Pierce is a member of various clubs, among which may be 
mentioned the Lawyers', the New York Athletic, the Metropoli- 
tan, the Atlantic Yacht, and the Riding Club. 

He was married at Baltimore, Maryland, on October 14, 1891, 
to Miss Grace Douglass WilUams. They have four children, 
namely : AUison Douglass Pierce, Winslow S. Pierce, Jr., Grace 
Douglass Pierce, and Helen Bancroft Pierce. 



GILBERT MOTIER PLYMPTON 

THE descendant of old colonial families, and the son of the 
distinguished army officer, Colonel Joseph Plympton, a 
Mexican War veteran, Grilbert Motier Plympton was bom on 
January 15, 1835, at the mihtary post of Fort Wood, Bedloes 
Island, New York harbor, where the statue of Liberty En- 
lightening the World now stands. At five years old he was at 
Fort SneHing, Minnesota, beginning his education with the 
chaplain of the fort for tutor. Next he was at Sacket Harbor, 
New York, where he attended a private school. When his father 
went to the Mexican War he was sent to hve with his uncle, 
Gerard W. Livingston, and his aunt, Anna de Peyster, at 
Hackensack, New Jersey. After the war he went, with his 
father, to Jefferson Barracks, Missouri, and then entered Shurt- 
leff College, Alton, Ilhnois. He left that institution on a 
promise of appointment to a cadetship at West Point, and pur- 
sued preparatory studies therefor in New York. But the 
promised appointment failing, he, at his father's request, studied 
law, and was admitted to the bar in November, 1860. The next 
year he entered the law school of New York University, and was 
graduated LL. B. in 1863. 

His father had died while he was a student, and his mother 
and sisters were left in his charge, his two brothers and the hus- 
bands of his two sisters having entered the army at the be- 
ginning of the Civil War. Mr. Plympton offered his services to 
the government, gratuitously, to instruct the newly enlisted re- 
cruits and officers, but his services were not required. He asked 
for a commission in the army, but was persuaded by his family 
not to press the matter, as all the other male members of his 
family were already in the war. 

304 



GILBERT MOTIER PLYMPTON 305 

In his legal career Mr. Plympton had at first a general prac- 
tice, and later devoted himself to cases in the federal courts and 
United States Supreme Court. He was eminently successful, 
but never had real fondness for the profession, which, indeed, he 
had entered only to please his father. 

In 1889, having earned a competence, and finding his health 
impaired, he retired fi-om the legal profession, and in 1892 organ- 
ized the banking-house of Redmond, KeiT & Co. of New York, 
to which he has since devoted his attention. 

Mr. Plympton was married, in 1863, to Miss Mary S. Stevens, 
daughter of Linus W. Stevens, a well-known merchant of this 
city, who was the first colonel of the Seventh Regiment of New 
York. One son was born to them, who died in infancy, and one 
daughter, Mary Livingston Plympton, who is now living. He 
has been a director of various corporations, and is a member of 
numerous clubs and societies, among which may be named the 
St. Nicholas Club, of which he was one of the founders, the 
Union, Metropohtau, Riding, Westchester Country, and New 
York Yacht clubs, the Down-Town Association, the Sons of the 
Revolution, the Society of Colonial Wars, the Society of the 
War of 1812, the Colonial Order of the Acorn, the St. Nicholas 
Society, the New York and the American Historical societies, 
the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Botanical and Zoological 
societies, the Chamber of Commerce, and others. His city home 
is on West Fifty-second Street, where he has a fine hbrary. His 
summer home is at East Grloucester, Massachusetts. 

Mr. Plympton has written much for the papers and magazines 
of the day, and has also pubhshed a number of pamphlets, in- 
cluding a biogi-aphy of his father, and a history of the Plympton 
family. 




EDWARD ERIE POOR 



THERE is still standing in Rowley, Massachusetts, an old 
house which was built in 1639 or 1640, by John Poore, 
who came from Wiltshire, England, in one of the earhest emigra- 
tions, and settled in Newbury, Massachusetts. A grant of thirty 
acres of land was given to him in the neighboring town of Row- 
ley, whither he removed, and where, in 1684, he died. His son, 
Henry Poore, bom in the old homestead at Rowley, fought in 
King PhiUp's War, was made a freeman of Newbury, and became 
one of the wealthiest men in the colony. Other members of the 
family are mentioned in the history of Massachusetts as brave 
soldiers and worthy citizens. In the sixth generation from the 
original immigrant was Benjamin Poor, an eminent Boston 
merchant. He was born in 1794, and married in 1824 to Arohne 
Emily Peabody of Salem, Massachusetts. The Peabodys are 
among the best-known families of the State. They descend from 
Lieutenant Francis Peabody of St. Albans, Herts, England, who 
came to America about 1635, and became a large landovnier in 
the towns of Topsfield, Boxford, and Rowley, Massachusetts. 
His wife belonged to the Forsters, famous in the border history 
of Scotland. Their descendants were prominent in all the sub- 
sequent annals of the colony and State of Massachusetts. George 
Peabody, the banker and philanthropist, was a member of the 
family. 

Edward Erie Poor, the son of Benjamin E. Poor and Aroline 
E. Peabody, his wife, was born in Boston, on February 5, 1837. 
He was a student in the public schools of that city, and then 
went directly into business instead of pursuing a collegiate course. 
He entered, in 1851, the dry-goods commission house of Read, 
Chadwick & Dexter of Boston, and remained with it until 1864. 



306 





^ 



/ 



^ 




EDWAED EBIE POOB 307 

In those years he acquired familiar acquaintance with practical 
business methods, and, being promoted from time to time to 
more lucrative places, amassed a considerable capital of his 
own. He was thus enabled in 1864 to engage in business on 
his own account. He accordingly came to New York city and 
opened a dry-goods commission house. For a year he conducted 
it alone. Then, in 1865, he became a member of the firm of 
Denny, Jones & Poor. Eleven years later the firm was trans- 
formed into Denny, Poor & Co., under which style it continued 
until Jime 30, 1898, at which date it was changed to Poor 
Brothers, the members of the firm being two sons of Mr. Poor. 

Mr. Poor became interested in banking at an early date, and 
was for many years a trustee of the Union Dime Savings Bank. 
In 1886 he was elected a director of the National Park Bank, in 
1893 he was elected one of its vice-presidents, and in 1895 was 
elected president of that important financial institution. He 
was one of the incoiporators of the Dry-goods Bank, is vice- 
president of the Passaic Print Works, Passaic, New Jersey, and 
one of the oldest membei's of the Chamber of Commerce. He 
is a member of the Union League, the Military, the Merchants', 
and the Manhattan clubs. 

Mr. Poor was married, in 1860, to Miss Mary Wellington Lane, 
daughter of Washington J. and Cynthia Clark Lane of Cam- 
bridge, Massachusetts. They have seven children : Edward 
Erie, Jr., James Harper, Charles Lane, Frank BaUou, Horace F., 
Helen, and Emily C. Poor. 

The two elder sons are associated with their father in business ; 
the third. Dr. Charles Lane Poor, is a professor in Johns Hop- 
kins University; and the elder daughter is the wife of W. C. 
Thomas of Hackensack, New Jersey. Mr. Poor has a fine coun- 
try place at Hackensack, and when in New York hves at No. 16 
East Tenth Street. 



gNp 




HENRY WILLIAM POOR 



HENRY WILLIAM POOR, whose name is identified the 
world over with raihoad statistics and information, is a 
New-Englander of old England antecedents. All his ancestors 
on both sides of the family came from England and settled in 
Massachusetts in early colonial days, and they and their descen- 
dants were actively concerned in the building of the nation. His 
great-grandfather, Ezekiel Merrill, was one of the minute-men at 
the time of Lexington, and was present, as a commissioned 
officer, at Bm'goyne's siuTcnder. After the war he went to 
Maine, and built the Merrill House at Andover, near the Range- 
ley Lakes, which is now one of the country-seats of the subject 
of this sketch. Of the illustrious Benjamin Frankhn, Mr. Poor's 
great-great-uncle, no other mention than his name is needed. 
Mr". Poor's father, Heniy V. Poor, was a lawyer in Maine, and 
then for many years editor of the " American Railroad Journal " 
in New York. In 1865 he retired from business, but since then 
has written a number of financial works of great value. 

Henry William Poor was bom at Bangor, Maine, on June 16, 
1844. At five years old he was brought to New York city and 
educated there until he was ready for college. He was graduated 
from Harvard in 1865, and at once made New York his home and 
the scene of his business activities. He at first became a clerk 
in a stock-broker's office, and learned that business so rapidly and 
so well that in 1868 he felt emboldened to start an office of his 
own, for dealing in railroad and other securities, under the firm- 
name of H. y. & H. W. Poor. He then associated himself with 
C. E. Habicht in the importation of railroad iron. 

At the same time, in 1868, the young man established the now 
famous annual publication known as " Poor's Railroad Manual." 

308 



HENBY WILLIAM POOB 309 

This work is the world-wide authority on the finances and gen- 
eral condition of every railroad in the United States. Mr. Poor 
has in adchtion to it published many other statistical works of 
standard value. 

Mr. Poor entered the banking business in 1880, in the firm of 
Anthony, Poor & Oliphant, which has from time to time changed 
its style until it is now H. W. Poor & Co., Mr. Poor being senior 
partner. The house has had a prosperous career, and is esteemed 
among the most trustworthy in the city. It represents many 
great foreign corporations, has acted as financial agent of several 
important raih-oads, and has issued more than one hundred 
milhon dollars of railroad bonds. In 1890 Mr. Poor became a 
member of the New York Stock Exchange, and has since that 
time individually done a large business there. He is president 
of the Kansas City and Pacific Railway, and a director of the 
Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railway, the Sherman, Shreveport 
and Southern Railway, the Bank of the State of New York, the 
United States Casualty Company, and other corporations. 

He is a member of many clubs, including the Union League, 
University, Harvard, Lawyers', Players', Country, Tuxedo, Down- 
Town, Riding, American Yacht, Seawanhaka Yacht, Aldine, 
Groher, Barnard, Lotus, City, Arkwi'ight, New York Athletic, 
and other prominent clubs of New York, and the Algonquin Club 
of Boston. He also belongs to the Sons of the American Revo- 
lution, the New York Historical Society, the New England 
Society of New York, the American Institute of Fine Arts, the 
New York Greographical and Statistical Society, the Metropohtan 
Museum of Art, the American Museum of Natural History, the 
Symphony Society, the Oratorio Society, and the Musical Ai-t 
Society of New York, and the Hakluyt Society of London. As 
these associations indicate, he is a man of scholarly and artistic 
tastes. He is the possessor of one of the finest private Mbraries 
in New York, and takes much pleasui'e in it. He is also fond of 
out-of-door sports of all worthy kinds, and was himself in youth 
noted for his athletic prowess. 

Mr. Poor was married, on February 4, 1880, to Miss Constance 
Brandon, and is the father of four children : Henry V. Poor, 
born in 1880 ; Edith Poor, born in 1882 ; Roger Poor, bom in 
1883 ; and Sylvia Poor, born in 1892. 



HENRY SMALLWOOD REDMOND 



IN the first half of the nineteenth century two prominent citi- 
zens of New York were WiUiam Redmond and Goold Hoyt. 
The former was an importer of huen fabrics from the north of 
Ireland, of which country he was a native. He was one of the 
founders of the Union Club of New York, and was an officer 
and director of many important business corporations. Goold 
Hojrt was one of the foremost New York merchants of his time, 
and was related to many leading families of New York, Boston, 
and Philadelphia. Mr. Redmond mamed Mr. Hoyt's eldest 
daughter, and to them was born a son, Henry Redmond. The 
latter, on reaching manhood, married Miss Lydia Small wood, 
daughter of Joseph L. Smallwood, a prominent cotton merchant 
of New York. 

Henry Smallwood Redmond is a son of Henry and Lydia 
Smallwood Redmond, and was bom at Orange, New Jersey, on 
August 13, 1865. Until he was sixteen years of age he was edu- 
cated at home, at Norwalk, Connecticut, and at the Maryland 
State College. He went to the last-named institution to prepare 
for admission to the United States navy, but a change in the 
administration caused him to lose his opportunity of appoint- 
ment. 

From the navy Mr. Redmond turned his attention to finance. 
He began as a clerk in the firm of Morton, Bhss & Co., where 
he remained for eight years, making rapid advancement in both 
proficiency and place. He paid especial attention to studying 
investment securities, and displayed marked aptitude in master- 
ing all the details of the banking business. Thus he soon came 
to be known as an authority on investment securities and their 
intrinsic values. 

310 




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HENRY SMALLWOOD REDMOND 311 

In 1889 Mr. Redmond decided to start in business on his own 
account, and did so. A little later he purchased a seat in the 
New York Stock Exchange. In May, 1892, in partnership with 
Henry S. Ken- and Gilbert M. Plynipton, he organized the bank- 
ing house of Redmond, Kerr & Co., to which fii"m Thomas A. 
Gardner was afterward admitted. From the outset the success 
of this firm was noteworthy, and it soon won the confidence of 
the entire financial community. 

Mr. Redmond was prominently identified with the work of 
reorganizing the Northern Pacific Railroad in 1897, and was at 
that time a du-ector of that road. He is now a director of the 
Trust Company of America, of the Fidehty Trust Company of 
Newark, New Jersey, and of many other corporations. 

Mr. Redmond is a Republican in pohtics, but has been too 
much engi'ossed in business to take any active part in political 
affairs beyond that of a private citizen. 

He is a member of numerous clubs and other organizations. 
Among those to which he belongs are the Union Club, New 
York Yacht Club, Racquet and Tennis Club, Knickerbocker Club, 
Lawyers' Club, Players' Club, Country Club, Larchmont Yacht 
Club, Carteret Gun Club, Seawanhaka Yacht Club, Philadelphia 
Club of Philadelphia, the Blue Mountain Forest Game Club, 
and the Chamber of Commerce of the State of New York. 




ISAAC LEOPOLD RICE 

ISAAC LEOPOLD RICE, son of Maier Rice, a teacher, and 
Fanny Rice, Ms wife, is descended from small landed pro- 
prietors in Bavaria and Baden. He was himself born in Rhenish 
Bavaria, at Wachenheim, on February 22, 1850. In 1856 he 
came to this country, however, and his career has ever since 
been identified with it. 

His early education was acquired in the Central High School 
of Philadelphia, an admirable institution of college preparatory 
rank. Later he went to the Law School of Columbia College, 
New York, and was there graduated LL. B. mm laude, in 1880. 
He also took the prizes in constitutional and international law. 

At the conclusion of his college course Mr. Rice devoted some 
years to hterary and educational work. He was, in 1882-83, 
lecturer of the School of Pohtical Science at Columbia Univer- 
sity. He was also an instmctor in the Columbia Law School, 
m 1884-86. 

Mr. Rice then took up the practice of law, devoting himself 
chiefly to railroad and similar practice, and thus more and more 
became interested in railroads and other industrial enterprises, 
at first as counsel and then as a director. Thus he became in- 
terested in the great combination of lines now constituting the 
Southern Railway. He was also for a time the foreign repre- 
sentative of the Philadelphia and Reading Company. 

Mr. Rice is now deeply interested in the development of elec- 
tric appliances. He was, from the commercial point of view, 
the founder of the electric storage battery, electric-vehicle, and 
electric-boat enterprises. At present he is president of the fol- 
lowing corporations : the Electric Boat Company, the Electric 
Launch Company, the Holland Torpedo Boat Company, the 

312 



1 




^f 




"i'% 




/-.^c^ 



ISAAC LEOPOLD KICE 313 

Electrodjoiamic Company, the Chicago Electric Traction Com- 
pany, and the Forum PuhUshing Company. He is vice-president 
of the Lactroid Company, and of the Guggenheim Exploration 
Company, and chairman of the board of directors of the Electric 
Axle Light and Power Company. He is a director of the Elec- 
tric Storage Battery Company, the Electric Vehicle Company, 
the Siemens-Halske Electric Company of America, the Pennsyl- 
vania Electric Vehicle Company, and the Consohdated Rubber 
Tire Company. 

This multiplicity of business interests has not prevented Mr. 
Rice from becommg known in social affairs. He is a member of 
the Association of the Bar, the Lotus Club, the Lawyers' Club, 
the Harmonic Club, the Columbia Yacht Club, the Union League 
Club of Chicago, the New York Press Club, the Manhattan Chess 
Club, the Franklin Chess Club of Philadelphia, and the St. 
George's Chess Club of London, England. As may be supposed 
from the latter affiliations, Mi*. Rice is a devotee of the game of 
chess, and has attained great pi'oficiency in it. He invented the 
new chess opening known as the Rice gambit. He has 
been xmipire at a number of international chess matches, and 
presented a trophy to be played for at international universities 
chess tournaments. 

Mr. Rice is the author of " What is Music V and of numer- 
ous articles which have appeared in the " North American Re- 
view," the "Century," and the "Fonim." 

He was married, on December 14, 1885, to Miss Julia Hyne- 
man Bamett, and has six childi-en, as follows : Muriel, Dorothy, 
Isaac Leopold, Jr., Marion, Marjorie, and Julian. 




THOMAS GARDINER RITCH 



THOMAS GARDINER RITCH, whose name has for a full 
generation been widely and honorably known in the legal 
profession of New York, may be reckoned a native of this city, 
although he was actually bom outside of its hmits, at the 
summer residence of his family, at the pleasant Westchester 
County village of North Salem. His parents were residents of 
this city, where his father. Wells Rossiter Ritch, was a prominent 
merchant. His mother's maiden name was Sarah A. Banium. 

He was bom, as stated, on September 18, 1833, and in due time 
was sent to school at Stamford, Connecticut. Thence he went 
to Yale College, and was graduated with the degree of B. A. in 
the class of 1854, subsequently receiving fi'om Yale the advanced 
degree of M. A. A com-se in the Yale Law School completed 
his academic training. He then came to New York, pursued his 
law studies further in the office of the Hon. James R. Whiting, 
and on February 27, 1856, he was duly admitted to practice at 
the bar of New York. 

A trifle less than two years later, to wit, on Febi-uary 1, 1858, 
Mr. Ritch entei*ed into partnership with his Yale College friend, 
Stewart L. Woodford, and has maintained that connection un- 
broken down to the present time. General Woodford has been 
an absentee member of the firm on several occasions, as when he 
was serving in the army during the Civil War, and when he was 
minister to Spain. But his name has remained in its place, and 
at the end of his services elsewhere he has returned to the active 
work of the office. The firm has been known as foUows : 
Woodford & Ritch; Stewart, Ritch & Woodford; Arnoux, 
Ritch & Woodford (1870-96) ; and at the present time, Ritch, 
Woodford, Bovee & Wallace. 



314 





/^ 




THOMAS GAKDINEE KITCH 315 

Mr. Ritch has held no political or other public offices, with the 
exception of that of school trustee for several years at Stamford, 
Connecticut. He is a director and trustee of several corpora- 
tions at Stamford, where he makes his home, is a du'ector of the 
Niagara Fire Insurance Company, and his firm is counsel for the 
Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, the Union Dime Savings 
Bank of New York, the Dime Savings Bank of Brooklyn, and 
other corporations of the metropolis. Mr. Ritch was an executor 
and trustee of the will of Daniel B. Fayerweather, by which im- 
portant bequests were made to a number of colleges, and which 
was the subject of much htigation. 

Mr. Ritch's college fraternities were Alpha Delta Phi and Phi 
Beta Kappa. He belongs to the Yale and Lawyers' clubs of this 
city. For twenty-five years he has been an elder of the Pres- 
byterian Church, and is earnestly devoted to its work. He was 
married, on April 14, 1859, to Miss Maria E. Pratt, daughter of 
the late Hiram Pratt, once Mayor of Buffalo, New York. They 
have two children Uving — Mary Rossiter Ritch and Helen Weed 
Ritch. 

Mr. Ritch's career has been typical of a large and unportant 
class of American business and professional men, who pm'sue 
quiet, industrious, and successfid courses of life, and form the 
real backbone of the social and civic body. They perform no 
sensational exploits. Their names are not perpetually sounding 
in the popular ear. They do not seek nor hold pubhc office. 
Their words and deeds are not matters of contention. But they 
do the real work for the welfare of the community and of the 
nation. Mr. Ritch has been throughout his whole career a 
valuable citizen in all the relations of life, and has constantly 
exerted, voluntarily and involuntarily, a potent influence for 
neighborly friendship, for business and professional integTity, 
and for loyal citizenship and good government. That is a record 
to be approved by all, and to be surpassed by none. 




WILLIAM H. ROBERTSON 



THERE was for many years no citizen of Westchester County, 
New York, more widely known and respected than "Judge" 
Robertson, as he was called among his friends and neighbors. 
He was for more than a generation an active political leader in 
a community where party feeling is intense. That he held the 
respect of opponents as well as of friends is a fact that marks 
him as, first of all, a good citizen. 

Wilham H. Robertson was born in the old town of Bedford 
on October 10, 1823. He received a classical education, studied 
law, and was admitted to the bar in 1847. Before he was a law- 
yer, however, he was an active pohtician. He was only seven- 
teen years old when W. H. Harrison ran for the Presidency, but 
he was old enough to go on the stump and do valuable work in 
the campaign. He was then chosen to be Superintendent of the 
Pubhc Schools of Bedford. In 1848 he was elected a member of 
the State Assembly, and served in that body for two years. His 
first term in the State Senate began in 1853. At its end he ac- 
qtured his familiar title of Judge, being in 1855 elected county 
judge of Westchester County, which office he held for twelve 
consecutive years. In 1860 he was a Presidential Elector on the 
RepubKcan ticket, and participated in the formal election of 
Lincoln and Hamlin. At the outbreak of the war he was in- 
spector of the old Seventh Brigade of the New York National 
Guard, and in 1862 Governor Morgan made him chairman of the 
committee to raise and organize troops in his Senate district. In 
1864 he was agam a Presidential Elector. 

His legislative career was resumed in 1866, when he was elected 
to Congress, serving fi'om March, 1867, to March, 1869. In 1871 
he returned to the State Senate, and was thereafter reelected 



316 




I%ltaii^.. li /tGi^tU-^ 



€14, 



WILLIAM H. ROBEETSON 317 

four times. He left his place at Albany in 1881, to become Col- 
lector of the Port of New York by appointment of President 
Garfield. This appointment was made against the wish of the 
two United States Senators from New York, who thereupon, to 
indicate then* displeasure, resigned their seats, and then sought 
reelection. In the latter aim they were defeated. The incident 
caused for some years a considerable split in the Republican 
party of the State, and was probably the inciting cause of the 
murder of President Garfield by the " crank " Guiteau. This 
opposition to his appointment was largely due to the fact that 
at the National Repiiblican Convention of 1880 Judge Robertson 
had been the organizer of the movement which prevented the 
nomination of General Grant for the Presidency for a third 
term. 

After serving a term in the custom-house. Judge Robertson in 
1889 returned to the State Senate, and was reelected for another 
term. After its expiration he hved quietly at his home in 
Katonah, and continued the practice of law until his death, 
which occurred on December 6, 1898. 




CHARLES FRANCIS ROE 



THE United States is not commonly accounted a military- 
nation. It is not biu'dened with a vast standing army, with, 
the hateful conscription system, or with the other loads which 
armed powers have to carry. Yet there is no nation in which 
the militant spirit is more vital, and in which the average citizen 
is more ready to famiharize himself with the duties of warfare 
whenever the welfare of the repubhc may require it. The wise 
constitutional provision for a mihtia in all the States has given 
us a fine body of citizen-soldiery, and endowed us with vast 
potentiahties for national defense. It often happens that mem- 
bers and officers of militia are descendants of soldiers, or have 
themselves served in the regiilar army of the United States in 
serious campaigns. Such is the ease with the subject of present 
consideration. 

Stephen Roe was a brave soldier in the American army in 
the Revolutionary War. At the conclusion of that struggle he 
settled in Ulster Coimty, New York, and there some of his de- 
scendants have since Uved. His grandson, Stephen Romer 
Roe, entered the Hudson River trade, and became one of the 
best-known captains on that river. He was the captain of 
the steamer Iron Witch and of the famous Daniel Drew of the 
Albany Line. His son, Charles Francis Roe, was born in the 
city of New York on May 1, 1848, and was at first educated at 
an academy at Sing Sing. Then he secured an appointment to 
the United States Military Academy at West Point, on July 1, 
1864. He was graduated in 1868, and received his commission 
as second lieutenant in the United States army. He was 
assigned to the First Cavalry, and served with it until Septem- 
ber, 1870, when he was transferred to the Second Cavalry. On 

318 



CHARLES FEANCIS EOE 319 

December 28, 1870, he was mustered out of the sei-vice, owing 
to the reduction of the anny in that year. But in 1871 he re- 
entered the army as second heutenant in the Second Cavahy, 
and soon saw some active service. He was the leader of one of 
the cohimus sent — unhappily, too late — to the relief of General 
Custer, and his command was the first to reach the field after 
the battle and massaci-e in June, 1876. From November, 1876, 
to March, 1878, he served as adjutant. In December, 1880, he 
was promoted to the rank of first heutenant, and then served as 
adjutant again until May, 1886. On January 1, 1888, he re- 
signed his command, for family reasons, and came to New York 
to live. 

Soon after his arrival here he became interested in the Na- 
tional Guard, and was made captain of the New York Hussars. 
Under his command, that body was mustered into the State ser- 
vice as Troop A in 1889. Since then it has become a squadron, 
and ranks, according to competent military critics, as the largest 
and best-drilled cavalry organization in the country. Under 
Captain Roe it did unpoi'tant work during the railroad strike at 
Buffalo in 1892, and the street-raih'oad strike in Brooklyn in 
1895. On February 9, 1898, Governor Black nominated him to 
be major-general in command of the National Guard of the 
State of New York, and the appointment was at once confirmed 
by the Senate, without debate. Early in the Spanish War, Gen- 
eral Roe was appointed by the President to be a brigadier-gen- 
eral of United States Volunteers, and in that position he did 
admirable service. 

General Roe was, some years ago, married to Miss Katherine 
B. Bogert of Brooklyn, New York, He is a member of the 
University, Union League, United Service, New York Athletic, 
Military, Barnard, Driving, St. Nicholas, and United States 
Army clubs, the Sons of the Revolution, and the American 
Geographical Society. He is engaged in business in this city, 
and is the possessor of an ample fortune. 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

FEW names are so prominently and so honorably identified with 
the history and substantial growth of New York city as 
that of Roosevelt. It was planted here in early times by pioneers 
from Holland. It is perpetuated upon the map and in the records 
of the city through being borne by a street, a great hospital, and 
other public institutions. Most of all, it has been borne in many 
successive generations by men of high character and important 
achievements, who have fittingly led the way for the present 
conspicuous representative of the family. For eight generations 
before him the paternal ancestors of Theodore Roosevelt were 
settled in New York, and more than one of them attained dis- 
tinction in business, in philanthropic work, and in the public 
service of city, State, and nation. They have intennarried with 
other prominent families, of other racial origins, so that in this 
generation there is a mingling of Dutch, Scotch, Irish, and 
French Huguenot blood within the Roosevelt veins. 

Of such ancestry Theodore Roosevelt was born, at No. 28 East 
Twentieth Street, New York, on October 27, 1858. He was grad- 
uated from Harvard in 1880, and then spent some time in Euro- 
pean travel. On his return home he studied law. In the fall of 
1881 he was elected to the State Assembly from the Twenty-first 
District of New York city. By reelection he continued in that 
body dui'ing the sessions of 1883 and 1884. He introduced im- 
portant reform measures, and his entu*e legislative career was 
made conspicuous by the courage and zeal with which he assailed 
political abuses. As chairman of the committee on cities he 
introduced the measure which took from the Board of Aldermen 
the power to confirm or reject the appointments of the Mayor. 
He was chairman of the noted legislative investigating com- 
mittee which bore his name. 

320 




o-I-JP 



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O—TD- 



THEODORE EOOSEVELT 321 

In 1886 Mr. Roosevelt was the Republican candidate for Mayor 
against Abram 8. Hewitt, candidate of the United Democracy, 
and Henry George, United Labor candidate. Mr. Hewitt was 
elected. In 1889 Mr. Roosevelt was appointed by President 
Harrison a member of the United States Civil Service Commis- 
sion. His ability and rugged honesty in the administration of 
the affairs of that ofitice greatly helped to strengthen his hold on 
popular regard. He continued in that office until May 1, 1895, 
when he resigned to accept the office of Police Commissioner of 
New York city from Mayor Strong. Through his fearlessness 
and administrative ability as president of the board the demoral- 
ized liolice force was greatly improved. 

Early in 1897 he was called by the President to give up his 
New York office to become Assistant Secretary of the Navy. 
Then again his energy and quick mastery of detail had much to 
do with the speedy equipment of the navy for its brilUant feats 
in the war with Spain. But soon after the outbreak of the war 
in 1898 his patriotism and love of active life led him to leave the 
comparative quiet of his government office for service in the 
field. As a heutenant-colonel of volunteers he recruited the First 
Volunteer Cavalry, popularly known as the Rough Riders. The 
men were gathered largely from the cow-boys of the West and 
Southwest, but also numbered many college-bred men of the 
East. 

In the beginning he was second in command, with the rank of 
heutenant-colonel, Dr. Leonard Wood being colonel. But at 
the close of the war the latter was a brigadier-general, and Roose- 
velt was colonel in command. Since no horses were transported 
to Cuba, this regiment, together with the rest of the cavahy, was 
obliged to serve on foot. The regunent distingiushed itself in the 
Santiago campaign, and Colonel Roosevelt became famous for 
his bravery in leading the chai-ge up San Juan Hill on July 1. 
He was an efficient officer, and won the love and admh-ation of 
his men. His care for them was shown by the circulation of the 
famous " round robin " which he wrote, protesting against keep- 
ing the army longer in Cuba. 

Upon Colonel Roosevelt's retui-n to New York there was a 
popidar demand for his nomination for Governor. Previous to 
the State Convention he was nominated by the Citizens' Union, 



322 THEODOKE ROOSEVELT 

but he declined, replying that he was a Republican. The Demo- 
crats tried to frustrate his nomination by attempting to prove 
that he had lost his legal residence in this State. That plan 
failed, and he was nominated in the convention by a vote of 
seven hundred and fifty-tkree to two hundred and eighteen. The 
campaign throughout the State was spirited. Colonel Roosevelt 
took the stump and delivered many speeches. His plurahty was 
eighteen thousand and seventy -nine. His administration since 
January 1, 1897, is fresh in the minds of all. 

Early in the year 1900 it became evident that he was the pop- 
ular favorite for the nomination for Vice-President of the United 
States on the Republican ticket. Personally he would have pre- 
ferred renomination for the Governorship of New York ; but the 
unanimity and earnestness of the call for him to take a place 
upon the national ticket prevailed. In the National RepubHcan 
Convention at Philadelphia, on June 21, 1900, President McKinley 
was renominated by acclamation, and Governor Roosevelt was 
nominated for Vice-President, also by acclamation, and in cii'cum- 
stances of unanimity and enthusiasm never before known in 
connection with that office. 

In the midst of his intensely active life Mr, Roosevelt has found 
time to do considerable literary work. The year after he was 
graduated from coUege he published his " Naval War of 1812 " ; 
in 1886 there came from his pen a " Life of Thomas H. Benton," 
published in the American Statesmen Series; the following 
year he published a " Life of Gouverneur Morris," which was 
followed in 1888 by his popular " Ranch Life and Hunting Trail." 
In 1889 were published the first two volumes of what he con- 
siders his gi-eatest work, " The Winning of the West." In 1890 
he added to the series of Historic Towns a " History of New 
York City." " Essays on Practical Politics," published in 1892, 
was followed the next year by " The Wilderness Hunter," while 
in 1894 he added a third volume to his " Winning of the West." 
In 1898 he collected a volume of essays, entitled "American 
PoHtical Ideas." Since the Spanish War he has written a book 
on the Rough Riders, and a series of articles on Oliver Crom- 
well by him has been appearing in " Scribner's." 



ELIHU ROOT 



BY nativity Elihu Root is a son of New York State. Through 
ancestry he belongs to New England, and before that to old 
England. His father, Oren Root, is admiringly and affectionately 
remembered as one of the foremost educators of his day, having 
been professor of mathematics in Hamilton College from 1849 
to 1885, and for a part of that time also professor of mineralogy 
and geology. In 1845 the family home was at Clinton, Oneida 
County, New York, and there, on February 15 of that year, Elihu 
Root was born. His early years were spent at that place, and 
his early education was gained at home and at the local schools. 
At the age of fifteen years he was fitted to enter college, and the 
college of his choice was Hamilton, with which his father was 
so conspicuously identified. There he pursued a course note- 
worthy not only for his admu'able mastery of his studies but 
also for the decided and forceful, manly character which he devel- 
oped. It may be added that he paid his own way through college 
by teaching school. In 1864 he was duly graduated, and forth- 
with entered upon the study of the law. At this time his means 
were still limited, and he was compelled to act as a tutor while 
he was a law student in order to pay his way. These double 
duties were, however, successfully performed. His law studies 
were chiefly pursued in the Law School of New York University, 
then called the University of the City of New York, and in 1867 
he was graduated and admitted to practice at the bar. 

Seldom does a young lawyer attain success so immediate and 
so substantial as that which marked Mr. Root's cai'eer. He 
served an apprenticeship in the office of Man & Parsons, and 
then formed a partnership with John H. Strahan. Later he 
formed a partnership with Willard Bartlett, who became a jus- 

323 



324 ELIHU BOOT 

tice of the Supreme Court. He was at one time counsel for 
William M. Tweed. In the famous Stewart will case he was 
chief counsel for Judge Hilton. He was also chief counsel for 
the executors in the Hoyt and Fayerweather will cases. He 
was prominent in the Broadway street-raih'oad litigation, in the 
Sugar Trust litigation, and in the suit of Shipman, Barlow, La- 
rocque & Choate against the Bank of the State of New York 
(growing out of the notorious BedeU forgeries). In the aque- 
duct litigation of O'Brien vs. the Mayor of the city of New York 
he was successful against the opposition of Joseph H. Choate, and 
thus saved to the city some millions of dollars. In many other 
important cases Mr. Root has been successfully engaged, and at 
the time of his entry into the President's cabinet he had one of 
the largest practices in the entire legal profession of New York. 

Mr. Root early took an active interest in politics, as a Repub- 
lican. In 1879 he was a candidate for judge of the Court of 
Common Pleas, and although defeated with the rest of the Re- 
publican ticket he polled a large vote. President Arthur in 
1883 appointed him United States District Attorney for the 
Southern District of New York, and he held that place until the 
middle of President Cleveland's first term, when he resigned it. 
He became the leader of the Republican party in his Assembly 
District, and was the representative of that district on the 
County Committee. In 1886 and 1887 he was chairman of the 
Repubhcan County Committee. In 1893-94 Mr. Root became 
dissatisfied with the " machine methods " of party management, 
and was a conspicuous member of the Committee of Thirty 
which undertook the reform of the party organization. Again, 
in 1897, he was a vigorous supporter of Seth Low for the Mayor- 
alty, against the Republican machine and Tammany candidates. 
In 1898 he was an earnest advocate of the nomination and elec- 
tion of Theodore Roosevelt as Grovemor of New York, and was 
his counsel in some important matters relating to the campaign. 

Upon the resignation of General Alger, in July, 1899, Mr. 
Root was chosen by President McKinley to succeed him as 
Secretary of War. He at once entered upon the duties of that 
important office with his characteristic energy and abihty, and 
soon obtained a masterly knowledge of the details of the depart- 
ment. He did more than that. He initiated large reforms and 



ELIHU ROOT 325 

improvements in the military organization of the country, and 
was instrumental in effecting their adoption. The troubles in 
the Philippines and in China have made the War Department 
a center of great responsibihty and activity during Mr. Root's 
incumbency, but the confidence of the President and the nation 
in his ability to discharge all his duties has never wavered. 

Mr. Root is a member of the Bar Association, the New England 
Society, the Union League, Republican, Century, Metropolitan, 
University, Lawyers', Players', and other clubs of New York. 
He has been president of the New England Society and of the 
Union League and Repubhcan clubs, and vice-president of the 
Bar Association. He has frequently appeared in pubhc as an 
orator on important occasions, and is esteemed as one of the 
most eloquent and convincing speakers of the day. He has long 
been a trustee of Hamilton College, and in 1894 received from 
that institution the degree of LL. D. 




HARRY GODLEY RUNKLE 



HARRY GrODLEY RUNKLE, who before reacliing middle 
age became a leading and dominant figure in the industrial 
and commercial world, is of remote Grerman ancestry. His first 
progenitor in this country was Adam Runkle, who came hither 
from Grermany in the year 1720, and settled in the then province 
of New Jersey, where both before and after that date so many 
of his countrymen settled, and to the development of which prov- 
ince into an important State they so largely contributed. In 
New Jersey, and in the northern and eastern part thereof, then 
known as East Jersey, the Rimkle family remained for generation 
after generation down to the present time. Its members retained 
the best characteristics of the old German stock, and also be- 
came fuUy assimilated to the composite organism which in time 
became known as the American nation. They exhibited, in 
every generation and in all walks of hfe, characteristic intelh- 
gence, energy, and thrift, and became prominent in industrial and 
social affairs. 

In the last generation Daniel Runkle, a direct descendant of 
Adam Runkle, Hved at Asbury, in Warren County, New Jersey, 
and was president of the important Warren Foundry and Ma- 
chine Company, in the neighboring city of PhiUipsburg. To 
him and his wife, Elizabeth Runkle, the subject of the present 
sketch was bom. 

Harry Godley Runkle was born at Asbury, Warren County, 
New Jersey, on June 10, 1858. His childhood was spent at the 
parental home, but his more advanced education was acquired in 
the well-known Charlier Institute, at Sixth Avenue and Fifty- 
ninth Street, New York, facuig Central Park. That was a 

326 




^yy^X^/iu^fu 



HARKY GODLEY RUNKLE 327 

school of great vogue and high merit in its time, but it has now 
gone out of existence. 

On leaving school Mr. Runkle turned his attention to business, 
and particularly to distinctively industrial affairs. He became a 
clerk in the office of the People's Gas Light Company, in Jersey 
City, New Jersey, entering that employment for the express 
purpose of learning the business of the manufacture and distribu- 
tion of gas. Next he became treasurer of the People's Gas Light 
Company at Paterson, New Jersey. From the latter city he re- 
moved to the city of Plainfield, New Jersey, and there made his 
home, and became president of the Plainfield Gas and Electric 
Light Company, a place which he still holds. 

In 1887 Mr. Runkle joined himself with R. A. C. Smith in 
forming the firm of Runkle, Smith & Company, which con- 
structed the waterworks system of Havana, Cuba. 

Other corporations besides those named with which Mr. 
Runkle is now officially connected are the American Mail Steam- 
ship Company, the American Indies Company, the Connecticut 
Lighting and Power Company, the Warren Foundiy and 
Machine Company, the Plattsburg (New York) Light, Heat, and 
Power Company, and the White Plains (New York) Lighting 
Company. 

Mr. Runkle has held and has sought no pohtical office, and 
has taken no pari in politics beyond that of a private citizen. 
He is, in both inheritance and personal conviction, an earnest 
RepubMcan, 

He is well known in the city of New York, in both business 
and social life. Among the prominent clubs of which he is a 
member are the Union League, Manhattan, Lawyers', and New 
York Yacht clubs, aU of New York. 

Mr. Runkle was married at Easton, Pennsylvania, on June 3, 
1880, his bride being Miss Jeannie F. Randolph, a member of an 
old and honored family of New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Two 
children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Runkle : Daniel Run- 
kle, who at this wi-iting is a student at Yale, and Mary Gray 
Runkle. 



HENRY WOODWARD SACKETT 

THE name of Sackett has been well known in this country 
ever since the foundation of the New England colonies. 
Some who bore it were among the Plymouth Pilgrims. Later 
several followed Roger WiUiams to Rhode Island, and were 
among his chief supporters there. In a still later generation was 
Major Buel Sackett, an officer in the Revolutionary War, and. 
one of those upon whom devolved the mouniful duty of witness- 
ing the execution of Major Andre. A son of Major Sackett was 
a captain in the War of 1812, and a son of the latter, Solon Philo 
Sackett, became a prominent physician and surgeon at Ithaca, 
New York. Dr. Sackett, who died in 1893, was the father of the 
subject of this sketch. His wife was Lovedy K. Woodward, the 
daughter of Charles Woodward, an English gentleman who, 
having come to this country on a hunting trip, was so impressed 
with the charms of central New York that he purchased a large 
tract of land between Cayuga and Seneca lakes, and made his 
home there for the remainder of his hf e. He was an enthusiastic 
and discriminating collector of ornithological and conchological 
specimens, and amassed one of the- finest private museums of 
such objects in this country. 

Henry Woodward Sackett, son of Dr. S. P. Sackett and 
Lovedy Woodward Sackett, was bom at Enfield, New York, on 
August 31, 1853. Much of his childhood was spent at the home 
of his grandfather, Mr. Woodward, under whose influence, as 
well as under that of his own father, his mind was early imbued 
with studiousness and with a love of Uterature and science. He 
received a preparatory education at Ithaca Academy, and at the 
age of fifteen years was matriculated at Cornell University. He 
did not at once enter upon the university course, however, but 

328 



HENRY WOODWARD SACKETT 329 

spent some time in teaching. Finally he pursued the full classi- 
cal course at the imiversity, and was graduated in 1875 with the 
highest rank in mathematics and various other honors and class 
distinctions. The next year was spent in teaching at the Monti- 
cello (New York) Mihtary Academy, and then he came to this 
city to study and practise law. 

Mr. Sackett's legal studies were pm'sued chiefly in a first-rate 
law office, and were combined with newspaper work on the staff 
of the " Tribune." In 1879 he was admitted to practice at the 
New York bar, and then became associated in business with 
Cornelius A. Runkle, who was for many years counsel for the 
" Tribime " and one of the best-known lawyers of this city. Mr. 
Runkle died in 1888, and Mr. Sackett succeeded him as counsel 
for the " Tribune." At that time he formed a law partnership 
with Charles Gibson Bennett, under the name of Sackett & Ben- 
nett. Six years later Mr. Bennett was succeeded in the firm by 
William A. McQuaid, the name becoming Sackett & McQuaid. 
Mr. McQuaid was educated at Yale University, where he was 
valedictorian of his class, and he is recognized as one of the most 
promising of the younger alumni of that university. Finally, in 
1897, the firm was fm-ther enlarged by the entrance of Selden 
Bacon, a son of the Rev. Dr. Leonard Woolsey Bacon and grand- 
son of the famous Leonard Bacon. Mr. Bacon was formerly 
professor of equity and practice in the Law School of the Uni- 
versity of Minnesota. The firm, now known as Sackett, Bacon 
& McQuaid, has an enviable rank in the legal profession of New 
York. 

Mr. Sackett, as counsel for the " Tribune," has won distinc- 
tion by the unvarying success with which he has defended the 
occasional libel suits brought against that paper. In connection 
with that part of his professional work he wrote, in 1884, a brief 
treatise on the law of libel, especially designed for the use of 
newspaper men, to inform them upon the subject, and to enable 
them, as far as possible, to avoid such suits, and to be prepared 
to defend them when unavoidable. His early fondness for news- 
paper work has continued, and has been manifested in the writing 
of numerous editorial and other articles for the " Tribune " on 
legal and other matters in which he is especially interested. Mr. 
Sackett has long taken an earnest interest in politics, and has 



330 HENRY WOODWAED SACKETT 

been an efficient worker for reformed methods of municipal 
administration, but has never been a candidate for office. He 
entered the National Guard of the State of New York some years 
ago as a member of Troop A, now Squadron A, the crack cavalry- 
organization. In 1896 he was appointed aide-de-camp, with the 
rank of colonel, on the staff of Governor Black. During the 
Spanish War, in 1898, he did several months of recruiting ser- 
vice in the North, and was paymaster of the New York troops in 
the South, with the rank of assistant paymaster-general. 

Mr. Sackett was, from 1895 to 1897 inclusive, president of the 
Cornell University Club of New York, one of the largest college 
alumni organizations in the city, and is a trustee of Cornell Uni- 
versity, elected by the alumni in June, 1899; a trustee of the 
Society for the Preservation of Scenic and Historic Places and 
Objects ; one of the organizers of the Society of Medical Juris- 
prudence ; and a member of the Phi Beta Kappa Alumni Asso- 
ciation, the University Club, City Club, Hardware Club, Bar 
Association, St. George's Society, St. Nicholas Society, American 
Geographical Society, Sons of the American Eevolution, Order 
of the Founders and Patriots of America, and various other or- 
ganizations. He is a communicant of the Protestant Episcopal 
Church, and a vestryman of St. Thomas's Church, Mamaroneck, 
New York, at which place he has a tine summer home. 

Mr. Sackett was married, in 1886, to Miss Ehzabeth Titus, 
daughter of Edmund Titus of Brooklyn, one of the incorpora- 
tors of the New York Produce Exchange. 




RUSSELL SAGE 

THERE is in all the business world of the United States no 
more interesting department than that which is found in the 
money and stock market of Wall Street, and among all the actors 
in the latter there is certainly no more interesting figure than 
that of the venerable subject of this sketch. For nearly forty 
years Mr. Sage has been a leader of Wall Street, and to-day, de- 
spite his advanced age, he is still as active and as forceful as ever, 
and there is no one in all the strenuous whirl of American bourse 
life who exerts a greater influence upon the current of business, 
or whose operations are watched with more intentness. With a 
sound mind in a sound body, such dual soundness scrupulously 
guarded by methodical habits of life, abstinence from the use of 
tobacco or stimidants, and the keeping of normal hours for sleep, 
Mr. Sage remains, at eighty-fom- years, as keen of intellect and all 
but as robust and active of body as any of his colleagues of half 
his years. 

Russell Sage was born in the little village of Shenandoah, in 
the town of Verona, Oneida County, New York, on August 15, 
1816. His parents, Elisha and Prudence (Risley) Sage, had 
shortly before left the Mohawk Valley to go to what was then 
the far West, in Michigan. After the birth of their son, how- 
ever, they abandoned their plans of further migration, and re- 
mained at Verona, removing two years later to Durhamville, in 
the same county. There they dwelt permanently, and there 
Ehsha Sage died in 1854, after his son had attained a fortune and 
a national reputation. Russell Sage spent his childhood upon 
his father's farm, and at the age of twelve years became an errand 
boy in the grocery store of his brother, Hemy Risley Sage, at 
Troy, New York. There, despite his hard work and long hours 

331 



332 BUSSELL SAGE 

of duty, he continued the studies he had begun at the district 
school, and thus in time acquii-ed an excellent education. 

At the age of twenty-one Mr. Sage became the partner of 
another brother, Elisha Montague Sage, in a retail grocery store, 
also in Troy, and a few years later, through enterprise and econ- 
omy, accumulated enough capital to buy out his brother's interest 
and become sole proprietor. Thus he prospered until 1839, when 
he made the store a wholesale establishment, and took John W. 
Bates as his partner. A large business was done in agricultural 
produce, beef, pork, and flour, and also in horses, and a number 
of vessels plying on the Hudson River were first chartered and 
then purchased by the firm for its use. His prominence in busi- 
ness led Mr. Sage into pohtics, as a Whig, and he was an Alder- 
man of Troy in 1845, and for some years after that treasurer of 
Rensselaer County. In 1848 he was a delegate to the National 
Whig Convention, and voted for Henry Clay imtil it was evident 
that the latter's candidacy was hopeless, when he changed his 
vote to General Taylor, who was nominated. Two years later 
Mr. Sage was a candidate for Representative in Congress, but 
was defeated. He was elected, however, in 1852, and again, by 
an increased majority, in 1854. In Congress he served on the 
Ways and Means and other important committees, and won wide 
notice as a valuable legislator. He also took a leading part in 
the measures which led to the disruption of the Whig party and 
the formation of the Republican party, to which latter he attached 
himself at its foundation. 

During his Congressional career Mr. Sage maintained his busi- 
ness in Troy, and made frequent trips to that city. On one of 
these trips he made the acquaintance of Jay Grould, and friend- 
ship arose between the two men which powerfully infiuenced the 
after hves of both. Through that influence Mr. Sage was led, in 
1857, to give up his business at Troy and devote his attention to 
purely financial matters. In 1863 he removed to New York city 
and entered Wall Street. At first he paid attention chiefly to 
raih'oad interests, but in 1874 he purchased a seat in the Stock 
Exchange and became a general operator in the transactions of 
the Street. He was for many years the foremost dealer in 
what are called, in Wall Street parlance, " puts," " calls," and 
"straddles." Although associated with Mr. Gould and other 



I 



RUSSELL SAGE 333 

notable speculators, he has been himself apparently concerned in 
few large speculative enterprises, and has seldom been seen upon 
the floor of the Exchange. He has, however, been interested in a 
majority of the great operations of the Street, and by virtue of his 
caution and discretion, his indomitable persistence, and his un- 
rivaled coolness and self-control even in the most exciting crises, 
he has made his way with probably a more uniform success than 
any of his contemporaries in Wall Street, and has amassed one 
of the largest private f oi-tunes in the United States. In the com- 
pass of such a sketch as this it would be useless to try even to 
outline the history of his Wall Street career. That history is the 
history of Wall Street itself for a full generation, 

Mr. Sage has taken an active part in the construction of more 
than five thousand miles of railroads, and has been president of 
more than twenty-five railroad or railroad-construction compa- 
nies. He is to-day prominently connected with more than a score 
of important corporations, including some of the foremost rail- 
road, steamship, telegraph, and gas companies, and banks. He is 
the only surviving founder and original director of the Fifth 
Avenue Bank of New York. 

Mr. Sage has twice been married. His first wife, whom he 
married in 1841, was Miss Maria Winne, daughter of Moses I. 
Winne of Troy. She died in 1867. In 1867 he mamed Miss 
Olivia Slocum, daughter of the Hon. Joseph Slocum of Syracuse, 
New York. He has no children. Mrs. Sage is a woman of high 
culture and great personal charm. She has identified herself 
with numerous movements for the promotion of the weKare of 
her sex. She was a graduate of the Troy Female Seminary, of 
which Mrs. Emma Hart Willard was the founder, and has been a 
most beneficent friend of that admirable institution. In 1895, in 
honor of his wife and in memory of Mrs. Willard, Mr. Sage pre- 
sented to the seminary a fine new dormitory, costing two hundred 
thousand dollars. Because of his wife's interest in it, also, he 
more recently gave fifty thousand dollars to the Woman's Hos- 
pital in the State of New York, in New York city, for the erec- 
tion of a new building. These are only two of many deeds of 
beneficence which Mr. Sage has performed, simply and unosten- 
tatiously, in his long and distinguished career. 



WILLIAM SALOMON 



WILLIAM SALOMON, well known as a member of one of 
the great international banking firms of this city, traces 
his genealogy, on both sides of his family, back to Revolutionary 
stock. On his father's side he is descended from Haym Salomon, 
the Philadelphia banker and patriot. His mother's name was 
Rosahe Alice Levy. She was a granddaughter of Jacob de 
Leon, of Charleston, South Carolina, a captain in the Revo- 
lutionary army, and a great-granddaughter of Hayman Levy, 
who was a prominent figure in the commercial world in the 
early days of New York, and who was associated with the first 
enterprises of John Jacob Astor and Nicholas Low. 

William Jones Salomon was bom on October 9, 1852, in 
Mobile, Alabama. While an infant he removed with his parents 
to Philadelphia, where his childhood was spent and his educa- 
tion was begun. Failing health made it necessary to take him 
out of school, and in 1864 he was sent to New York and placed 
under private tuition. He soon gained in strength sufficiently 
to enter the Columbia Grammar School, where he remained 
until he was fifteen years of age, and after that devoted him- 
seK for a period to the study of the French and German 
languages. In 1865 his parents removed to New York. 

On leaving school young Salomon at once began his business 
career in the employ of the house of Speyer & Co., with which 
he was so long associated. He began in a subordinate capacity, 
and carefully studied all the details of the business as he 
advanced. Having familiarized himself with the business of the 
New York office, he desired to do the same in the European 
offices of the firm. He therefore obtained permission to trans- 
fer himself to the principal offices of Speyer & Co. at Frankfort- 



334: 





xZ-'-'^^^'^c^^n, 



WILLIAM SALOMON 335 

on-Main, where lie could study the methods of the house there, 
and at the same time perfect his practical knowledge and use of 
the modem European languages. About that time, however, the 
great war of 1870-71 between France and Germany broke out, 
and on that account he was compelled to remain in London for 
a time, in the London house of Speyer & Co. His experience 
there was useful to him, and then, early in the war, he went on 
to Grermany for two years and fulfilled his plans. Li 1872 he 
returned to New York. In 1875, one of the principal partners 
being called to Europe, Mr. Salomon was appointed manager of 
the New York establishment, and for many years afterward was 
prominently identified with its history. 

The firm of Speyer & Co. has long been actively interested in 
placing United States bonds with German investors, and in sell- 
ing the bonds of American railways to European capitalists. Mr. 
Salomon made a specialty of railway investments, and through 
his efforts the firm attained a remarkable prestige in this par- 
ticular line. Some notable loans which it has been instinimental 
in effecting are those of the Central Pacific, the Southern Pacific, 
the Pennsylvania, the Chicago, Milwaukee, and St. Paul, the 
Illinois Central, the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern, and the 
Chicago, Rock Island, and Pacific railways. Mr. Salomon per- 
sonally was prominently interested in the reorganization of the 
Baltimore and Ohio Railway Company, and became chau'man of 
its board of directors. 

Mr. Salomon's political af&hations are with the Democratic 
party, but he has taken no very active part in politics since 1891, 
when he was chairman of the finance committee of the New 
York Democracy, which strongly supported the nomination of 
Mr. Cleveland for the Presidency. He has a marked inclination 
toward literature, and has contributed a number of meritorious 
articles on financial and other topics to current magazines. He 
has traveled extensively in Europe, and has visited every State 
and Territory in the Union. 

Mr. Salomon was married, in 1892, to Mrs. Helen Forbes Lewis, 
daughter of WiUiam McKenzie Forbes of Tain, Ross-shire, 
Scotland. 



EDWARD WILLIAM SCOTT 

THE family of Scott, whicti has been distinguished in pubhc 
affairs in this country, and which gave to the mihtary ser- 
vice one of the most gallant and majestic figures in the world's 
history of wars, settled in the American colonies at an early day. 
One branch of it became established in Virginia, from which 
sprang Wiufield Scott. Another was located in Connecticut, and 
to it belonged Winfield Scott's cousin, William Scott. The latter 
removed from Connecticut to the western part of New York, and 
there acquired from the Holland Purchase Land Company an 
extensive estate, which was in turn possessed by his son, William 
Scott, Jr. The latter married Louisa M. Brown, daughter of 
Smith Brown of Rhode Island, whose ancestors were among the 
earliest English settlers in New England. 

The son of William, Jr., and Louisa Scott, Edward William 
Scott, was bom at Lockport, New York, on October 7, 1845, 
and was educated in the common and high schools of Lockport, 
the Wilbraham Academy in Massachusetts, and Eastman's Busi- 
ness College, Poughkeepsie, New York. 

From the first his inclinations were toward a business career, 
and he promptly selected hfe-insurance as a calling to which he 
felt best adapted and in which he deemed himseK best assured 
of success. 

He began work in a subordinate position, but through energy, 
application, tact, and integrity he made a steady progress in the 
favor of his employers and steadily rose from rank to rank. 

In his early business career he became associated with the 
Equitable Life Assurance Society, and to its service he devoted 
his time and ability, with mutual profit. For more than twenty 
years he was connected with that society, first as superintendent 

336 



I 



t I 



EDWAED WILLIAM SCOTT 337 

of agencies, and subsequently was for several years one of its 
vice-presidents and directors. During this time he established 
its business in several foreign countries, and in furthering its 
work circumnavigated the globe three times. 

In 1896 Mr. Scott resigned his position, and was elected presi- 
dent of the Provident Savings Life Assurance Society of New 
York. He is a director of the North American Trust Company, 
and is connected with other financial institutions. 

Devotion to his chosen business and the absorbing nature of 
its duties, as well as following his own tastes, have kept Mr. 
Scott removed from public offi.ce and from political activities, 
save such as are incidental to the life of an inteUigent, interested, 
and patriotic citizen. His extensive travel, combined with his 
observing mind and loyalty to friends, have given him a very wide 
acquaintance, both at home and abroad. 

Mr. Scott is connected with a number of clubs and other social 
organizations. Among these are the Union League, Colonial (he 
is one of its ex-presidents). Lawyers', Merchants', New York 
Athletic, Riders' and Drivers', Suburban, and Columbia Yacht 
clubs, and the New England Society of New York. Mr. Scott 
retired from the presidency of the Colonial Club at the expira- 
tion of his term of office in the spring of 1893, to the great regret 
of all his associates, who appreciated the valuable work he had 
done for the club. A farewell dinner was given to him by about 
a hundred members of the club, on the eve of his sailing for 
Europe, just before the expiration of his term, and when his 
positive declination of a renomination had become known. 

He was married, in November, 1864, to Miss Ellen R. Moody 
of Lockport, New York. Their family consists of four sons : 
Edward William Scott, Jr., Walter Scott, Wallace Scott, and 
Elmer Scott. His home, to which he is devoted, is a center of 
cultivation and refinement. 




JOHN MARSTON SCRIBNER 



THE name of the Rev. John M. Scribner will be remembered 
by many as the author of a number of mathematical works 
and the successful principal of young ladies' seminaries at Au- 
burn and Rochester, New York. To him and his wife, Ann 
EHza Scribner, there was born a son, at Middleburg, Schoharie 
County, New York, on October 4, 1839, to whom the father's 
name was transmitted, John Marston Scribner. The boy at- 
tended for four years the Delaware Literary Institute at Frank- 
hn, New York, entered the junior class of IFnion College in 1857, 
and two years later was graduated. Then he entered as a student 
the law office of Sanford & Danforth at Middleburg. In the 
fall of 1860 he came to New York city, and entered as a student 
the office of the Hon. Hamilton W. Robinson, where he pm-sued 
his studies to so good an advantage that in May, 1861, he was 
admitted to practice at the bar. 

Mr. Scribner remained for some time in the office of his latest 
preceptor, Mi'. Robinson. At first he was merely a clerk ; but 
in September, 1863, he was taken into partnership, the firm 
thereafter being known as Robinson & Scribner. This partner- 
ship continued until July, 1870. At that time Mr. Robinson 
became a judge of the Court of Common Pleas in this city, and 
the law business of the firm was transferred to Mr. Scribner. 
He remained alone for several years, but finally, in Januaiy, 
1876, he formed a partnership with E. Randolph Robinson, and 
thus revived the old name of Robinson & Scribner, which in 1882 
was changed to Robinson, Scribner & Bright by the admission 
of Osborn E. Bright. On May 1, 1890, Mr. Scribner withdrew 
from the firm and resinned the practice on his own account, and 
since that time has continued alone in this work. 



^ x^^ 



J- 





^ Xjij^z..^-^ 



% 



.V 

i 



JOHN MAKSTON SCRIBNEB 339 

Mr. Scribner's practice has dealt largely with street-railroad 
affairs, though of course it has included much other legal work 
in other branches of the profession. In early years he had in 
charge the legal affairs of George Law's extensive street -railroad 
system and other interests. For nearly a quarter of a century 
he was sole counsel for the Bi^oadway and Seventh Avenue Rail- 
road Company, and during that time conducted a vast amount 
of litigation in behalf of it. For more than thirty years he per- 
formed the same service for the Dry Dock, East Broadway and 
Battery Railroad Company. He has also been counsel for many 
years of the Eighth Avenue Raih'oad Company, the Ninth Ave- 
nue Railroad Company, and the New York and Brooklyn Feny 
Company. He was also counsel for the famous old stage lines 
which were operated on Broadway and some of the avenues be- 
fore the construction of the Broadway Railroad. He was for a 
number of years one of the counsel for the Pennsylvania Rail- 
road Company in New York and Brooklyn. More I'ecently he 
has been acting as counsel for the Metropolitan Street Railway 
Company in its numerous litigations, particularly in personal 
injury cases, of which he has successfully defended perhaps as 
many as any lawyer in this State. 

Mr. Scribner has never held nor sought public office. He has, 
however, long taken an earnest interest in pohtics as an inde- 
pendent Democrat. 

Among the social and professional organizations of which he 
is a member may be mentioned the Bar Association of New York 
city, and the University and Lawyers' clubs. 

He is also president of the board of trustees of the Central 
Presbyterian Church, and in February, 1899, was the recipient 
of a massive silver loving-cup from his associates after a service 
of twenty-five years as a member of the same board. 




JOHN ENNIS SEARLES 



AMONG the great industrial combinations which form the 
jl\ characteristic feature of manufacturing and other business 
in these closing years of the century, one of the most conspicu- 
ous and most powerful is the American Sugar Refining Com- 
pany, commonly known as the Sugar Trust. This vast concern, 
with a capital of fifty milUon dollars, has for years practically con- 
trolled the sugar trade of the continent, the magnitude of the 
operations enabhng it to outstrip all rivals, while also enabhng it 
to supply the market with an admirable stock of the great food 
staple at a much lower price than would be possible under other 
conditions. It is interesting to observe that the organizer of 
this corporation, and the moving spirit in other concerns of 
scarcely less magnitude, is a man who began business as a clerk 
on what would commonly be reckoned starvation wages. The 
story of his rise from a subordinate to a commanding place, if 
told in detail, would form a striking chapter of business history, 
characteristic of the land of unbounded opportunities. 

John Ennis Searles was bom on October 13, 1840, at the 
ancient village of Bedford, Westchester County, New York. 
His mother, before her marriage, was Miss Mary A. Dibble, of 
that village. His father was the Rev. John E. Searles, for fifty 
years a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church. The boy 
was educated, as was the wont of ministers' sons, at the New 
York Conference Seminary of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 
and then entered commercial life. 

His first engagement was as junior bookkeeper for the firm of 
W. J. Syms & Brother, at 177 Broadway, New York. That was 
in 1856, when he was sixteen years of age, and in 1857 he 
entered the employ of Cornell Brothers & Co., in Cortlandt 



340 



JOHN ENNIS SEARLES 341 

Street, as entry clerk. Tliat was a humble beginning for the 
future millionau'e ; but he stuck to it so faithfully and effectively 
that at the end of four years' service, marked with occasional 
promotions, he was taken into the firm as a partner One would 
say that was a fine achievement for the young man, but it did 
not satisfy him. The very next year, 1862, he withdrew from 
the firm, and became identified with the business which was to 
see his greatest efforts. 

This was the sugar trade. He became, in 1862, a member of 
the firm of L. W. & P. Armstrong, a West India shipping firm 
of New Haven, Connecticut. Partly through his vigorous initia- 
tive, that fiiTn soon developed a large specialty in the sugar 
business, and, for the better prosecution of it, removed its head- 
quarters to New York. He remained in that flirm for eighteen 
years, making for himseK a handsome fortime and building up 
a business of great magnitude. 

The first step toward the Sugar Trust was taken in 1880. In 
that year Mr. Searles withdrew from the Annstrong firm, and 
organized the Havemeyer Sugar Refining Company. This was 
effected by the consolidation of the two firms of Havemeyer 
Brothers & Co. and Havemeyer, Eastwick & Co. Then, in 1887, 
other concerns were associated with it in what was popularly 
called the Sugar Trust, with fifty million dollars capital. Of 
this Mr. Searles was secretary, treasurer, and chief executive 
officer. The trust was replaced, in 1891, by a corporation caUed 
the American Sugar Refining Company, though still popularly 
called the Sugar Trust, in which Mr. Searles held the same 
of&ces as before. In January, 1899, however, after a protracted 
illness, he resigned all official places in the Sugar Company, and 
also the presidency of the Western National Bank of this city. 
The latter place he had held for only three years, but in that 
time he had increased the bank's deposits from nine million to 
thirty-five million dollars, and had placed it in the foremost rank 
of financial institutions. 

The hst of liusiness concerns with which Mr. Searles is or has 
been intimately connected, as part proprietor or officer, is a long 
and important one, rivaled by those of few of his contemporaries. 
Besides his important trusts in the American Sugar Refining 
Company and the Western National Bank, Mr. Searles is or has 



342 JOHN ENNIS SEARLES 

been interested in the following corporations : the American 
Coffee Company, as a director ; American Cotton Company, 
president and director; American Deposit and Loan Company, 
trustee; American Surety Company, trustee; American Type- 
founders' Company, president and director; Baltimore, Chesa- 
peake and Atlantic Railway Company, chairman; Brooklyn 
Cooperage Company, secretary and director; Equitable Life 
Assurance Society of the United States, trustee ; Hyatt Roller- 
Bearing Company, president and director; Mercantile Trust 
Company, director; Minneapohs and St. Louis Railroad Com- 
pany, vice-president and director; People's Trust Company, 
director; Preferred Accident Insurance Company, director; 
Sprague Electric Company, du-ector; Tei-minal Improvement 
Company, trustee and director ; Terminal Warehouse Company, 
director ; Union Traction and Electric Company, second vice- 
president and director ; Universal Lasting and Machine Com- 
pany, director. His chief attention is now given, however, to 
the American Cotton Company, an organization formed by him in 
1896, for putting up cotton directly from the seed cotton into 
cylindrical lap-bales, thus dispensing with the old crude process 
and the subsequent compression, and delivering the cotton 
directly to the spinner in a neat package, without waste, and in 
an advanced stage of preparation. 

Mr. Searles is a member of the Lawyers' Club, and the Down- 
Town Association, of New York, and of the Union League Club, 
and of the Ridiag and Driving Club of Brooklyn. He has long 
been connected with the Methodist Episcopal Church, and has 
been a delegate to General Conferences, and manager in various 
societies. He is president of the Brooklyn Chiirch Society, and 
trustee of the Methodist Episcopal Hospital, and the Brooklyn 
Institute of Arts and Sciences. He was married, in 1862, to Miss 
Caroline A. Pettit. They have had five children : Mrs. Louise 
Stearns, Mrs. F. O. Blackwell, Mrs. A. B, Roeder, Mrs. Win- 
throp M. Tuttle (deceased), and J. Foster Searles. His resi- 
dence on St. Mark's Avenue, Brooklyn, is one of the finest iu 
the city. 



HENRY SEIBERT 



CORPORATIONS form the distinctive feature of the indus- 
trial and commercial world of to-day. The invention and 
development of machinery led, a couple of generations ago, to 
the organization of the factory system, superseding the old 
system of individual cottage industries. That, in turn, neces- 
sitated the employment of large capital in industrial ventm-es, 
and that naturally led to the formation of companies to take 
the place of individual operators. Finally these companies 
themselves have found it often to then* advantage to combine 
into still larger organizations, with a corresponding reduction 
of the cost of production and distribution. 

The history of successful men of business in this country is 
now largely a history of corporate entei^prises, which they have 
founded or in which they have become interested. Such is the 
case with Heniy Seibert, who has identified himself with a large 
number of corporations, in various lines of industiy and in 
various parts of the United States. 

Mr. Seibert is a native of Germany, where he was born in 
May, 1833. His parents and ancestors were all German. In 
early life* he was brought to the United States, and settled in 
New York city. He received a good common-school education 
in the pubhc schools of New York, and then entered the in- 
dustrial world to make a living and ultimately a fortune for 
himself. 

His first occupation was that of a Uthogi'apher. In that there 
was a certain poetical fitness, seeing that the art of Hthography 
had been invented by a countryman of his. He learned hthog- 
raphy thoroughly, and for years worked at it practically, and 
with success. More than twenty years ago, however, he retired 

343 



344 HENBY SEIBEBT 

from that business, and has since not been actively engaged 

therein. 

Lithography was not only Mr. Seibert's first business ; it was 
also the only business in which he has ever engaged. On with- 
drawing from active participation in it, he devoted his attention 
to investment in and direction of corporations, and the list of 
such concerns with which he is or has been identified is a for- 
midable one. 

Mr. Seibert's interests comprise a marked variety of industries, 
such as raOroads, city street-railroads, mining, sugar-refining, 
brass manufacturing, electric lighting, and banking. He is a 
director of the Chicago and Eastern Illinois Railroad Company, 
whose Unes extend from Chicago to Terre Haute, Indiana, and 
other points, and form an important transportation system in the 
Central West. He is a director of the Sea Beach Railroad Com- 
pany, whose hue has long been one of the favorite routes from 
the city to the sea-shore at Coney Island. He is a director of 
the Brooklyn, Queens Coxmty and Suburban Railroad Company, 
whose electric lines extend to Rockaway Beach and numerous 
other suburban points on Long Island. He is a director of the 
Kings County Elevated Railroad, one of the principal overhead 
lines of transit in the borough of Brooklyn. He is a director of 
the Brooklyn Heights Railroad Company, a corporation which 
acquired the lines of the old Brooklyn City Railroad Company, 
transformed them from horse railroads to electric troUey roads, 
and revolutionized the whole system of local transit in Brooklyn. 
Finally, so far as railroads are concerned, Mr. Seibert is a 
director of the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company, the giant cor- 
poration which has absorbed the Brooklyn Heights, Kings 
County Elevated, and other systems, and to-day controls nearly 
every transit line in the borough of Brooklyn, and is one of the 
largest concerns of the kind in the world, if not the very largest. 

So much for railroading in its various forms, general, subur- 
ban, surface, elevated, steam, cable, and electric. Active con- 
nection with such an array of companies would be deemed 
enough for the average man, but Mr. Seibert has extended his 
interests much further. He is a director and vice-president of 
the Minnesota Iron Company, and is thus a potent figure in the 
iron trade of the country. He is a director of the Lanyon Zinc 



HENRY SEIBERT 345 

Company, whose extensive works are located at lola, Kansas, 
and a director also of the Manhattan Brass Company of New 
York. These latter are important concerns, of large capital and 
high standing. 

Still another field of enterprise has been entered by Mr. 
Seibert, in sugar-refining, he being a director of the great Mol- 
lenhauer Sugar Refining Company of New York. 

While thus interesting himself in industrial enterprises, Mr. 
Seibert has not neglected what we might term pure finance. 
He has not opened a banking house of his own, but he is a 
director of the Nassau Trust Company of Brooklyn, one of the 
chief banking institutions in that part of the metropolis. 

IVIr. Seibert is a naturalized citizen and a loyal American. 
He has not, however, sought any pohtical prominence, but has 
contented himself with discharging the duties of an intelligent 
and patriotic private citizen. The only public place he has filled 
is that of World's Fair Commissioner, at the Columbian Exposi- 
tion at Chicago, to which he was appointed by Governor Flower. 

He has not made himself prominent in club life, either, pre- 
ferring to spend his leisure time within the domestic circle. He 
is, however, a member of the Hanover Club, one of the foremost 
social organizations of Brooklyn. 

Mr. Seibert was married in Brooklyn, in 1860, and has three 
sons and one daughter, to the preparation of whom for worthy 
careers in life he has delighted to devote his most earnest 
attention. 




HENRY SELIGMAN 



THE Seligman family, which for many years has been iden- 
tified with great financial interests in New York city 
and throughout the United States, and has been one of the chief 
forces in the financial world of America, presents a remark- 
able example of the achievements of industry, energy, and integ- 
rity, in spite of original circumstances of the most discouraging 
kind. In the last generation it consisted of eight brothers, 
who came, not all together, to this country fi-om Baiersdorf, 
Bavaria, more than half a century ago, and entered upon business 
here in a small way. The eldest of these, and the pioneer in 
this country, was Joseph Sehgman. He was educated at the 
University of Erlangen, and studied both medicine and theology. 
Neither of those professions, however, proved to be to his liking. 
The bent of his mind was toward practical business affairs. 
His activity of mind and love of freedom impelled him to seek 
some ampler field of action than the Old World could afford. 
Therefore, at the age of seventeen, in 1836, he came to the 
United States, and thus founded the family of Seligman in this 
country. 

The young man found his first employment imder that master 
of business, Asa Packer, who was then just beginning his great 
career as a contractor. Mr. Seligman remained in his employ for 
a couple of years, and then went South and engaged in business 
on his own account at Greensboro, Alabama. There he was 
successful, and he determined to make this country the scene 
of his hfe-work. He, moreover, reckoned it a most promising 
field for his younger brothers to seek or to make their for- 
tunes in. He accordingly wrote to them, advising them to fol- 
low in his footsteps. This advice they acted upon as soon as 
they were old enough. 



346 



HENRY SELIGMAN 347 

The fourth of them, with whom we at present have most con- 
cern, was Jesse Seligman, who came hither in 1841, at the age 
of twenty years. He had scanty means, and at first engaged in 
the business of a peddler in the subm-bs of New York. Thus 
accunuilatiug one thousand dollars capital, he went to Selma, 
Alabama, and joined his brother Joseph in a small general store. 
In 1848 he removed to Watertown, New York, and then came to 
New York city, where he opened a wholesale clothing store. 
When gold was discovered in California he went thither, and 
in 1850 opened a general store in San Francisco, where he greatly 
prospered. He was also a leader among those who strove to 
give California a stable and honest government. He was mar- 
ried, in 1854, to Miss Henrietta Hellman, at Munich, Bavaria, 
and a few years later settled in New York, joining his brothers 
Joseph and James in the wholesale clothing and importing 
business. 

In 1865 the brothers organized the great banking-house of 
J. & W. Sehgman & Co., which soon rose to the foremost rank. 
Jesse Sehgman took especial interest in national finance, and 
was the trusted adviser of more than one Secretary of the Trea- 
sury. He was of great service to the government in placing its 
bonds in the European market, and his firm has for the last 
twenty years been conspicuous in every syndicate formed for 
that purpose. He was prominent in many other enterprises, and 
in the vast Hebrew charities of New York city. He died at 
Coronado Beach, California, on April 23, 1894, universally 
esteemed and lamented. 

The second of the six children of Jesse Seligman is Henry 
Seligman, who was bom in San Francisco, California, on March 
31, 1857. In his childhood he was brought by his parents to 
New York city, where he has since chiefly made his home. He 
was educated in local schools and in New York University, 
from which latter institution he was graduated in the class of 
1875, being then only eighteen years of age. He naturally 
decided to follow the business in which his father and uncles 
had won such success. He was under no necessity of working 
hard, for his father was already very rich. But, with character- 
istic energy and thoroughness, he resolved to begin at the be- 
ginning and learn the business from the bottom upward. 



348 HENKT SELIGMAN 

Accordingly he went, in September, 1875, three months after 
his graduation from the university, to San Francisco, and 
there became an errand-boy in his father's Anglo-Cahfomian 
Bank. He worked diUgently and studied, and was from time to 
time promoted according to his attainments and merits, until he 
became assistant cashier. Then he was called back to New 
York, in 1880, and entered the fii-m of J. & W. Seligman & Co., 
with which he has since been identified. Since the death of his 
father he has been especially prominent in the management of 
the fijin and the successful conduct of its vast business, now 
extending to all parts of the world and exercising an influence 
in the money markets of Europe and America. 

Active participation in the affairs of so great, a corporation 
might be deemed sufficient to absorb the energies of any one man, 
but it is by no means the measure of Mr. Seligman's activities. 
He is interested in numerous other enterprises, some of them of 
great importance. Among his business connections the following 
may be mentioned : He is director and chairman of the exec- 
utive committee of the United States Smelting and Refining 
Company, and a director of the American Steel and Wire 
Company, the Buffalo Gras Company, the Syracuse Gas Company, 
the Welsbach Commercial Company, which controls the famous 
Welsbach incandescent gas-lighting system, and the Cramp 
Ship and Engine Company, one of the foremost ship-building 
corporations in the world. To all of these Mi*. Seligman gives 
a considerable share of his personal attention, and promotes 
their success by the application of his great executive ability and 
business foresight. 

Mr. Sehgman follows in the footsteps of his father in his 
interest in the great charities and other public benefactions with 
which the Hebrew element of New York is so honorably identi- 
fied. He is also a prominent figure in many of the best social 
organizations, including the Lawyers' Club, the Lotus Club, the 
Criterion Club, the Country Club, and the Hollywood Golf Club. 

Mr. Sehgman was married in this city, on March 11, 1899, to 
Mrs. Addie Walter Seligman, widow of David Seligman and 
daughter of the late J. D. Walter, the wedding ceremony being 
performed by Justice George C. Barrett of the Supreme Coiu-t 
of the State of New York. 





(KM^^P 



ISAAC NEWTON SELIGMAN 



THE name of Seligman has long stood among the foremost 
in America for successful financiering and for business 
integrity; and the city of New York has had no foreign-born 
citizen who has been held in higher and more deserved esteem 
than the late founder of the Ijanking house which bears that 
name, the house of J. & W. Seligman & Co. Joseph Seligman 
was bom at Baiersdorf, Bavaria, GeiTQany, on September 22, 
1819, the son of a family of means and culture. He received an 
admirable education, which included a course at the University 
of Erlangen, from which he was graduated in 1838. He was 
noted for his proficiency in the classics, especially in Creek, in 
which language he was able to converse fluently. After gradu- 
ation he studied medicine for some time, and also evinced a 
partiality for theological studies. Thus he secured a general 
culture of far more than ordinary scope and thoroughness. 

His inclination finally led him, however, into commercial and 
financial pursuits. Impressed with the extent of opportunities 
offered by the United States, he came to this country in 1845. 
His first occupation here was that of a teacher, for which he was 
admirably fitted and in which he might easily have attained 
lasting and distinguished success. It was to him, however, only 
a stop-gap until he could find a place in the business world. The 
latter was presently secured in the capacity of cashier and 
private secretary to Asa Packer, who was then just beginning 
his famous career as a contractor at Nesquehoning, Pennsyl- 
vania, and who afterward became the millionaire president of 
the Lehigh Valley Railroad system. 

From that service Mr. Seligman passed into a mercantile enter- 
prise at Greensboro, Alabama. There he was moderately suc- 

349 



350 ISAAC NEWTON SELIGMAN 

cessful, and he soon accumulated enough capital to assure him 
of his business future. He then wrote to his brothers in Ger- 
many, of whom he had seven, telling them of the advantages 
offered by the United States and urging them to come hither. 
Three of them did so at once, and all the rest followed later. 
Of the first comers, Jesse and Harry Sehgman settled at 
Watertown, New York, and for seven years conducted a prosper- 
ous dry-goods business. Joseph Sehgman, the pioneer, mean- 
while remained in the South, where he was finding increasing 
prosperity. 

When the brothers had accumulated enough capital for the 
piu-pose, and felt sufficiently sure of their ground in the new 
country, they came to New York city, united their resom-ces, and 
opened an importing house. To the fii-m thus formed they in 
time admitted their other brothers, when the latter came over 
from Europe. 

Thus they were engaged at the time of the outbreak of the 
Civil War in the United States. Joseph Seligman then real- 
ized that there was a magnificent opportunity for beginning a 
career in the banking business. He communicated his views to 
his brothers, and quickly gained their agreement. Accordingly, 
the banking house of J. & W. Seligman was opened, in New York 
city, in 1862. This was the beginning of one of the most 
marvelous financial careers in the history of America or the 
world. 

The Sehgman Bank met with extraordinary success from 
almost the very first. The New York house rose to commanding 
proportions, of national importance, and branches were estab- 
lished in London, Paris, and Frankfort. Branches were also 
opened in two American cities, namely, San Francisco, where a 
consohdation was afterward formed with the Anglo-California 
Bank, and New Orleans, the latter branch being known as the 
Seligman and Helhnan Bank, Mr. Hellman being a son-in-law of 
Mr. Seligman, 

One of the earhest enterprises of the Seligmans was the intro- 
duction of United States government bonds into the money 
markets of Europe, and especially of Germany. This was under- 
taken in 1862, in what was the darkest hoiu- of the Union cause. 
This nation needed at that time both money and sympathy, and 



ISAAC NEWTON SELIGMAN 351 

of neither had it received much from the Old World. The under- 
taking of the Seligmans was successful. United States credit 
was estabhshed in Europe, confidence in the stability of this 
government was promoted, and much sympathy with the national 
cause was thus secm-ed. These services were of incalculable 
value to the nation, and were none the less appreciated because 
they were also profitable to those who made them. The govern- 
ment fittingly recognized them by making the London branch of 
the Seligman Bank the authorized European depository for the 
funds of the State and Naval departments. Nor was this the 
only patriotic service rendered by Joseph Seligman. On many 
another occasion he greatly assisted the government, and indeed 
saved its credit from impairment, by carrying for it large sums 
of money. Again, in 1871-72, when the government decided to 
refund the two himdred and fifty bonds, it was Mr. Sehgman 
who formulated the plans for the operation and materially assisted 
in executing them. He was a warm personal friend of General 
Grant, and was asked by him to accept the office of Secretary of 
the Treasury in his fu-st administration. But loyalty to his bank- 
ing interests and to his many connections with large corporations 
— from which he would have had to separate himself — led him to 
decline this tempting offer. 

Joseph Sehgman was a man of broad and liberal sympathies, 
in whom all beneficent causes found a cordial friend, without 
regard to distinctions of race or creed. He was the founder of the 
great Hebrew Orphan Asylum in New York, and was in many ways 
the benefactor of his fellow-Hebrews. But he also aided many 
non-Hebrew institutions and benevolent enterprises, and he was 
one of the organizers of the Society for Ethical Culture, to which 
he gave the sum of seventy thousand dollars. 

He was married in 1848, and to him and his wife, Babette 
Seligman, were born nine children, of whom the third son is 
Isaac Newton Seligman, his successor as the present head of the 
banking house. Mr. Seligman died at New Orleans on April 25, 
1880, universally honored and lamented. 

Isaac Newton Seligman, above mentioned, was born to Joseph 
and Babette Seligman, in the city of New York, on July 10, 1855. 
His education was received entu-ely in his native city, at the 
Columbia Grammar School, which he entered at the age of ten 



352 ISAAC NEWTON SELIGMAN 

years, and at Columbia College, from which he was gi-adiiated 
with honors in 1876. Dui'ing his college course he was prominent 
in athletics as well as in scholarship, and was an eflSeieut mem- 
ber of the famous winning Columbia crew which won the race at 
Saratoga in 1874 over Yale, Harvard, and nine other college crews. 
He has always been a loyal alumnus of Columbia, was for a long 
time president of the boat club, and was active in raising funds 
for the new college gi-ounds. 

Tor two years after his graduation from Columbia, Mi-. Selig- 
man was connected with the New Orleans branch of his father's 
banking house. He there evinced a marked aptitude for finance 
in the earliest stages of his business career, and was soon looked 
upon as the " coming man " in the rising generation of the SeUg- 
man family. 

In 1878 Mr. Sehgman came to New York city, and entered the 
banking house of J. and W. Seligman & Co. There he showed 
himself as capable as his New Orleans career had promised he 
would be, and he immediately became a conspicuous and domi- 
nant figiu'e in the banking world of the American metropolis. 
Upon the death of his father in 1880, he, with his uncle Jesse, 
succeeded to the management of the firm, and at the present 
time Mr. Seligman is the sole head of the famous house. 

Mr. Sehgman is a director of the St. Louis and Santa Fe Rail- 
road, and of the North Shore (Boston and Lynn) Railway, a 
trustee of the Munich Reinsui-ance Fire Company, the National 
Sound Money League, the People's Institute, the Cooperative 
Committee on Playgrounds, the New York Audit Company, the 
St. John's Guild, and the Hebrew Charities Building. He is a 
life member of the New York Sailors' and Soldiers' Association, 
and of the National Historic Museum. He is a member of the 
Chamber of Commerce of the State of New York and was a lead- 
ing subscriber to its building fund, and was a delegate from it to 
the Loudon Chamber of Commerce celebration. He is vice-presi- 
dent of the Baron De Hirsch Memorial Fund, and was treasurer 
of the Waring Fund. He is a director of the City and Subur- 
ban Homes Company, which is erecting improved tenements and 
dwellings. He has been a delegate to the National Conference 
of Charities and Con-ections. He takes a great and active inter- 
est in charitable work, and is connected with many charitable 



ISAAC NEWTON SELIGMAN 353 

organizations, especially those looking to the relief and education 
of the children of the poor. 

Mr. Sehgman takes an earnest and patriotic interest in public 
affairs, but has sought no political office. The only such office 
he has held is that of tnistee of the Manhattan State Hospital, 
to which he was appointed by Governor Morton and reaj)pointed 
by Governor Roosevelt. The direction his pohtical interest and 
affihations have taken is indicated by his official connection with 
the Sound Money League. 

He is a member of a number of prominent clubs, among which 
may be named the Lotus, the Lawyei's', the University, the 
Natural Arts, and the St. Andrew's Golf clubs of New York. 

Mr. Seligman was married, in 1883, to Miss Guta Loeb, a 
daughter of Solomon Loeb, of the banking firm of Kuhn, Loeb 
& Co., of New York and Frankfort, Germany. The wedding 
took place at Frankfort. Mr. and Mrs. Seligman have two chil- 
dren : Joseph Lionel Sehgman and Margaret Valentine Seligman. 




HENRY FRANCIS SHOEMAKER 

HENRY FRANCIS SHOEMAKER, banker and railroad 
president, was born in Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania, 
on Marcb 28, 1845. His ancestors were Dutch, and the first of 
them in this country were among the corm-ades of Pastorius, the 
Grerman Quaker and friend of WiUiam Penn, who settled at 
Philadelphia in 1683. Peter Shoemaker, his great-gi*eat-grand- 
father, served in the Indian wars of the colonial period, and his 
son, John Shoemaker, served in the War of the Revolution. In 
the next generation both the grandfathers of Mr. Shoemaker, 
Henry Shoemaker and WiUiam Brock, were soldiers in the War 
of 1812. Mr. Shoemaker himself was an officer in the Civil War. 
Mr, Shoemaker's great-great-uncle. Colonel George Shoemaker, 
was the first to bring anthracite coal to the Philadelphia market, 
and his father, John W. Shoemaker, was a prominent coal oper- 
ator at Tamaqua, Pennsylvania. John W. Shoemaker married 
Mary A. Brock, daughter of William Brock, the latter a leading 
coal operator, and to them was born the subject of this sketch. 

Mr. Shoemaker was educated in the schools of Tamaqua, and 
in the Genesee Seminary at Lima, New York. In his boyhood 
he manifested a keen interest in coal-mining, and when out of 
school was an almost daily visitor at his father's works. When 
the invasion of Pennsylvania occurred, in 1863, and Governor 
Curtin called for volunteers, he organized a company of sixty 
men at his father's mines, and took them to Harrisburg. He 
was elected captain, but decUned the place in favor of an older 
man, and took that of first lieutenant. The company served 
tmtil after the battle of Gettysburg, and was then mustered out. 

The next year Mr. Shoemaker went to Philadelphia and en- 
tered one of the leading houses in the coal-shipping trade of that 

354 




/lU^ty(^C-^ fl^/C^{JUC^L^A^(^^(^^Juu^l^ 



HENKY FRANCIS SHOBMAKER 355 

city. In 1866 he formed the firm of Shoemaker and Mclntyre, 
and in 1870 he formed the firm of Fry, Shoemaker & Co., and 
engaged in the business of mining anthracite coal at Tamaqua, 
Pennsylvania. He soon saw, however, greater opportunities for 
hunseK in the transportation business than in coal-mining, and 
accordingly sold his coal interests and entered the railroad world. 
In 1876 he became secretary and treasurer of the Central Rail- 
road of Minnesota. Two years later he took an active part in 
the construction of the Rochester and State Line Railroad, 
at about the same time removing his residence to New York. 
To his raih-oad interests he added that of banking, in 1881, in 
opening the banking house of Shoemaker, Dillon & Co. in New 
York. That house has dealt largely in railroad securities. 

Mr. Shoemaker became interested in the Wheeling and Lake 
Erie Railroad in 1886, president of the Mineral Range Railroad 
in 1887, chaii'man of the executive committee of the Cincinnati, 
Hamilton and Dayton Railroad in 1889, and, in 1893, one of the 
chief owners of the Cleveland, Lorain and Wheeling Railroad. 
He also is, or recently has been, chau-man of the board of 
directors of the Cincinnati, New Orleans and Texas Pacific, 
president of the Cincinnati, Dayton and Ironton, and the Dayton 
and Union railroads, vice-president of the Indiana, Decatur and 
Western Railway, and a director of the Cincinnati, Hamilton and 
Indianapolis, and the Alabama Grreat Southern railroads, and 
also of the Enghsh corporation controlhng the last-named in 
London. He has been interested in coal-mining in the Kanawha 
valley. West Virginia, and in the New Jersey Rubber Shoe 
Company, now part of the United States Rubber Company. He 
is a trustee of the Tmst Company of New York, and of the 
North American Trust Company, of the Mount Hope Cemetery, 
and of the Grood Samaritan Dispensary. 

Mr. Shoemaker is a member of the Union League, Riding, 
Lawyers', Lotus, Riverside Yacht, and American Yacht clubs of 
New York, the Sons of the Revolution, the Grand Anny of the 
Republic, and the Pennsylvania Society of New York. He was 
married, on April 22, 1874, to Miss Blanche Quiggle, daughter 
of the Hon. James W. Quiggle of Philadelphia, formerly United 
States minister to Belgium. Two sons and one daughter have 
been born to him. 



EDWARD LYMAN SHORT 

THE ancestry of Edward Lyman Short, so far as the United 
States is concerned, begins with some of the earliest New 
England colonists. Indeed, we may trace it back of them 
to Henry Sewall, who was Mayor of Coventry, England, of whose 
descendants five have been judges, three of them chief judges, in 
this country. The first of the Shorts in this country was Henry 
Short, who came over in the famous ship Mary and John, and 
arrived in Boston in 1634. The first of the Lymans had already 
come hither, three years earUer. This was Richard Lyman, who 
settled at Hartford in 1631. In later generations both these 
famihes were prominently identified with the interests of the 
rising nation, as witness the names and patriotic records of Lieu- 
tenant John Lyman, Major Ehhu Lyman, Colonel Samuel Par- 
tridge, and Captain Timothy Dwight, who were all among Mr. 
Short's ancestors. Richard Lyman, it may be added, came from 
High Ongar, England, and his will was the first ever probated 
in the Connecticut Colony. 

From Henry Short, a direct descendant, was the eminent theo- 
logian and educator, Charles Short, LL. D., who was one of the 
committee on the revision of the Bible from 1871 to 1882, presi- 
dent of Kenyon College from 1863 to 1868, and professor of 
the Latin language and literature in Colmnbia College from 1868 
to 1886. In the same generation was descended from Rich- 
ard Lyman Miss Jean Ann Lyman of Greenfield, Massachusetts. 
She became the wife of Dr. Short, and to them the subject of 
the present sketch was born. 

Edward Lyman Short was born, of such parentage and ances- 
try, in the city of Philadelphia, on September 30, 1854. When 
he was only nine years of age his father became a member of the 

356 



il 





'^. 



< 




y*\ay*\ 



^A^^nAzr 



EDWARD LYMAN SHORT 357 

faculty of Columbia College, and settled in New York, and the 
boy accordingly received bis early education in schools in this 
city. He was prepared for college at Philhps Academy, Andover, 
Massachusetts, where he was graduated in 1871. He then en- 
tered Coliunbia College, and was graduated there with high 
honors in 1875. Choosing the law for his profession, he began 
the study of it in private offices, and also in the Columbia College 
Law School, from which latter he was graduated in 1879. In 
the same year he was admitted to practice at the bar. In 1884 
he became a member of the firm of Davies & Rapallo, and has 
remained in that connection to the present time, the fli-m mean- 
time changing its name to Davies, Cole & Rapallo, then to 
Davies, Short & Townsend, and finally, as at present, to Davies, 
Stone & Auerbach. 

Mr. Short has made a specialty of cases involving railway in- 
terests, taxation, iusm-ance, and corporation law, and has come 
to be recognized as an authority in such matters. He has 
written a standard work on " Railway Bonds and Mortgages." 
Among railroad companies in whose litigation he has par- 
ticipated are the Wabash, the Scioto Valley, the Minneapolis and 
St. Louis, and the Lackawanna and Pittsburg. He has for some 
time been general sohcitor for the Mutual Life Insurance Com- 
pany of this city. He was also engaged in the important tax 
case of the Horn Silver Mining Company, the Hillman fraud 
case, and the Runk suicide case, before the Supreme Court of 
the United States. 

He has never held nor sought pohtical office, but has devoted 
his attention almost exclusively to the practice of his profession. 
He has foimd recreation and intellectual elevation in travel 
abroad, and in the cultivation of artistic and hterary tastes. He 
is a member of many of the best social organizations of the city, 
among them being the University, Metropolitan, Church, Law- 
yers', and Down-Town clubs, the Riding Club, the Sons of the 
Revolution, and the Society of Colonial Wars. 

Mr. Short was mamed in this city, in November, 1887, to 
Miss Livingston Petit, daughter of John Jules Petit, and has one 
daughter, Anna Livingston, and one son, Livingston Lyman 
Short. 



CHARLES STEWART SMITH 

CHARLES STEWART SMITH comes, on Ms father's side, 
fi'om the early English stock that settled in the Connecti- 
cut valley in 1641, and is sixth in descent from Lieutenant Sam- 
uel Smith, Sr., and the Hon. Richard Treat, both distinguished 
in colonial histoiy ; and, on his mother's side, from the best stock 
of New Jersey, her father, Aaron Dickinson Woodi'uff, having 
been for many years Attorney-Greneral and one of the foremost 
lawyers of that State. He was bom on March 2, 1832, at Exeter, 
New Hampshire, where his father was a Congregational minister. 
From his father he acquired the rudiments of a good education, 
including Latin and Greek. Then he went to the village school 
and academy, and at the age of fifteen was able himself to be- 
come a school-teacher in a Connecticut village. A few years 
later he came to New York, and at once fell into the business 
pursuit which was to claim his life's attention, and in which he 
was to achieve a greater than ordinary measui-e of success. 

He became a clerk in a dry-goods jobbing-house. In a short 
time he became master of the details of the business, and showed 
himself to be industrious and trustworthy. Promotion followed 
as a matter of course. At the age of twenty-one he was admitted 
to partnership in the important house of S. B. Chittenden & Co., 
and thereafter lived abroad for several years as its European rep- 
resentative. His experience there was just what was needed to 
complete his training as a man of affau's. 

On his return to America, he organized a firm of his own, un- 
der the name of Smith, Hogg & Gardiner, which succeeded to 
the dry-goods commission business of the Boston house of A. & 
A, Lawrence, and for a quarter of a century had a prosperous 

358 



CHARLES STEWART SMITH 359 

career. In 1887 he retired from active labor, thougli his firm 
contiimed under the same name. 

His abihty as a financier naturally led him into other enter- 
prises, especially banking. He was one of the founders of the 
Fifth Avenue Bank, and of the German-American Insurance 
Company. He is a director of the United States Trust Com- 
pany, the Fourth National Bank, the Merchants' National Bank, 
the Fifth Avenue Bank, the Greenwich Savings Bank, and the 
Equitable Life Assiu-ance Society. He is also a trustee of the 
Presbyterian Hospital. 

The esteem in which he is held by his associates in the busi- 
ness world has been strikingly shown by his election, in 1887, as 
twenty-sixth president of the Chamber of Commerce, and his 
unanimous reelection for seven successive terms. He has taken 
a good citizen's active interest in pohtics, but has never held 
pohtical office. The nomination to the Mayoralty of the city 
was once offered to him, but declmed. Mr. Smith was chairman 
of the Chamber of Commerce Committee on Railroad Transpor- 
tation which caused the investigation to be made by the Hepburn 
Committee, in 1879, which secured for New York State the Rail- 
road Commission. He was chairman of the executive committee 
of the Committee of Seventy that overthrew Tammany and 
elected Mayor Strong in 1891, and was also chairman of the Cit- 
izens' Union, in 1897, that nominated Seth Low for Mayor, and, 
with an organization existing but six months, cast one hundred 
and fifty thousand votes for its candidate, and was only defeated 
by the hostility of the machines, which feared a municipal gov- 
ernment imtrammeled by party obUgations. 

He is a member of the Union League, Century, Metropolitan, 
Merchants', City, Lawyers', and Players' clubs, and is a member 
of the New England Society, the Sons of the American Revolu- 
tion, and the Society of Colonial Wars, and is a well-known figure 
and frequently toast-master or speaker at many public dinners 
and meetings. He is a hf e member of the Academy of Design and 
of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and possesses a valu- 
able collection of paintings. He has presented to the Metropol- 
itan Museum a collection of Japanese and Chinese porcelains 
and other objects. Mr. Smith has been a frequent contributor 
to some of the best magazines and reviews. 



DE WITT SMITH 



AMONGr tlie younger financiers of New York, the financial 
Jr\^ capital of the Western world, there are few who are as suc- 
cessful and as favorably known, both locally and throughout the 
country at large, as De Witt Smith, the president of the Rich- 
mond, Petersburg and Carolina Railroad Company. 

Mr. Smith is a native of the northern part of New York State, 
where his father was for many years prominent and honored in 
transportation and financial circles. He was bom at Cape Vin- 
cent, New York, on March 31, 1858, but spent most of his boy- 
hood in the city of Oswego, New York, and acquired his early 
education in its schools. The family remained at Oswego until 
the year 1876, when it removed to St. Louis, where Mr. Smith's 
father was extensively interested in the lumber trade. Mr. 
Smith, who was then eighteen years old and through with the 
common and grammar schools, of course accompanied his family 
to Michigan, and there began his own business career. 

His inclination was strongly toward finance, and accordingly 
his first employment was in the Gratiot County Bank of St. 
Louis, Michigan. He had not had previous experience in such 
work, but he entered into his duties more as an expert than as a 
novice. From the hour of his entry into the bank he showed 
exceptional aptitude for financial transactions, and rare good 
judgment in conducting them — the qualities which, more fuUy 
developed, have marked his subsequent career with so great a 
measure of success. Promotion after promotion came in rapid 
sequence, and within a year he became practically the manager 
of the bank. But Mr. Smith was a firm believer in the " higher 
education," for business men as well as for members of the 
learned professions. It had been his boyish ambition to pursue 

360 




r 




DE WITT SMITH 361 

a regular collegiate course, deeming such cultui'e as an advan- 
tageous preparation for any worthy career. His parents also 
encom-aged him in this ambition, especially his mother, who was 
a lady of remarkable intellectiiality and wide culture. 

Accordingly he resigned his place in the Gratiot County Bank, 
with all its bright prospects of preferment in the financial world, 
and came back to the East to become a college student. Yale 
was the imiversity of his choice, and he was matriculated there 
as a member of the class of 1886. In that venerable institution 
he soon attained high rank as a scholar. During his course 
at Yale he found time to pursue the theological studies of the 
Yale Divinity School, in which he was specially interested as an 
intellectual pursuit. 

After ]Mr. Smith left Yale he became fully persuaded that his 
most suitable course was to be found in the business world. So 
he entered business in New York city. Here he devoted his 
attention to financial enterprises. One of the first and closest 
friends of Mr. Smith in New York was Professor Charles Top- 
pan, who was known as an " oil genius," as well as a man of 
sterling worth. The fact that Mr. Smith became his intimate 
friend and associate is in itself a fine indication of the young 
man's admirable character. Through this acquaintance Mr. 
Smith was placed upon the threshold of a promising career in 
the oil trade. He was soon brought into close relations with 
the officers of the Standard Oil Company, and made with that 
corporation some contracts of great importance. Unfortunately, 
before he was fully launched upon this course of operations, his 
friend Professor Toppan died, and he was accordingly compelled 
to abandon that promising field. 

He immediately tm-ned his attention to another and more 
promising field — namely, that of railroading. He was quick to 
appreciate the advantages that might be gained in many places 
by consolidating under one management a number of roads, thus 
making a profitable trunk-line out of what had been a series of 
separate and struggling raih'oads. He found an opportunity for 
such work along the Southern Atlantic seaboard, and acquu-ed 
by purchase from the city of Petersburg its control of the 
Richmond, Petersburg, and CaroUna Railroad. He forthwith 
financed and constructed a one-hundred-mile extension south 



362 DE WITT SMITH 

into North Carolina, making connection with the Richmond, 
Fredericksbui'g and Potomac Railroad. During 1898 he person- 
ally conducted the negotiations for the purpose of the various 
railroad properties composing the entire Seaboard Air Line in 
behalf of the syndicate of which he was a member, and was a 
prime factor in the amalgamation of a number of Southern roads 
into the gi-eater Seaboard Aii- Line, which caused so marked a 
sensation in the railroad and financial world in the fall of 1899. 

Mr. Smith is still an important member of the Seaboard Air 
Line Syndicate, but he has also turned his attention to other 
enterprises of a similar nature, to all of which his direction 
seems to be an assurance of profitable progress. He is now, as 
already stated, president of the Richmond, Petersburg and Caro- 
hna Railroad, the affaks of which company he directs with 
signal skill. He is also the principal owner, as he was the 
organizer, of the Colonial Construction Company, a corporation 
which controls a number of railroad consti-uction contracts 
amounting to many milUons of dollars. 

Mr. Smith's various enterprises have entailed upon him a 
great amount of traveling about the coimtry. His home and 
his principal office are, however, in New York city. His private 
offices are connected with the sumptuous suite of rooms occu- 
pied by the Richmond, Petersburg and Carolina Railroad Com- 
pany, including the entire front of the fourteenth floor of the 
Washington Life Insurance Company's Building, on the lower 
part of Broadway. He has a handsome home on West Eighty- 
fifth Street, and there spends most of his leisure time, for his 
tastes are decidedly domestic. He is a member of the Lawyers' 
Club and a number of other clubs, but holds that clubs are 
made for men, not men for clubs. Welcomed as he always is 
wherever he goes, therefore, he makes his club associates a mere 
incident of his life, his chief attention being given to his offices 
and his home. 

He is a man of much " personal magnetism " and charm of 
manner, and eminently fitted to become a social leader, or to 
pursue a successful career in politics. To the latter, however, 
he has paid little attention beyond discharging the duties of an 
intelligent and pubhc-spirited citizen. 



I 



JOHN SABINE SMITH 



THE subject of this sketch comes of a family that was honor- 
ably known in England many generations ago. On his 
father's side his ancestry includes Captain James Parker, who 
was engaged ia the King Philip War in 1676. His great-grand- 
father was the founder of Windsor, Vermont ; his grandfather 
was the first white child born in that town; and his father was 
for more than fifty years a prominent physician, practising at 
Randolph, Vermont. 

John Sabine Smith was born at Randolph, on April 24, 1843. 
He was forced to gain an education through his own energies. 
After a preparatory course, he went to Ti'inity College, Hartford, 
Connecticut, at the age of sixteen, and though compelled to spend 
much time ia working to pay his way, he was graduated, four 
years later, at the head of his class. Then for five years he taught 
school at Troy and at Westchester, New York, meanwhile study- 
ing law. In May, 1868, he was admitted to practice at the bar, 
and then came to this city to engage in the practice of his 
chosen profession. Here for many years he has ranked among 
the most dihgent, hard-working, and successful lawyers in the 
city. He has been connected with many important cases, and 
has won many signal victories. 

He joined the Young Men's Republican Club in 1879, and 
when it was transformed into the RepubUcan Club he remained 
one of its leading members. He was one of the organizers of the 
Repubhcan League of the United States, and was actively con- 
cerned in the first National Convention of Republican Clubs, 
held in New York in 1887. The next year he helped to make 
the Republican clubs potent forces in the campaigns. In 1890 
he was the leader in the fight for a straight Repubhcan local 



363 



364 JOHN SABINE SMITH 

ticket, and tlie next year saw him directing the campaign to 
make Mr. Fassett, if possible, Governor of the State. His ser- 
vices to the party in 1892, as chairman of the campaign commit- 
tee of the RepubUcan Club, were recognized by that club the 
next year in making him its president. In 1892 he ran for the 
office of surrogate of the County of New York, and, though de- 
feated, had the satisfaction of poUing the largest vote ever given 
for any straight candidate of his party for any office in this city. 
In 1893 he was president of the RepubUcan County Committee 
of New York, and the next year was a member of the committee 
of thirty which reorganized the local Repubhcan party. At this 
time he prepared plans for the enlargement of the Legislature and 
the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court, which were favor- 
ably acted upon by the State Constitutional Convention. He 
was the author of the new law regulating piimary elections, 
which was passed by the Legislature in 1897. For several years 
he was a member of the Republican State Committee. In 1896-97 
he was chairman of the committee on speakers and meetings 
of the Republican County Committee. 

Mr. Smith is a member of the City, State, and National Bar 
associations, of the Repubhcan, University, Lawyers', Church, 
and other clubs, and of the Phi Beta Kappa Society, the New 
England Society, and the Society of Colonial Wars, the Chancel- 
lor Walworth Masonic Lodge, the Columbian Commandery, 
and Mecca Temple of the Mystic Shrine, a member of Grace 
Protestant Episcopal Church, and a trustee of Trinity College. 
Mr. Smith was for some time president of the Society of Medical 
Jurisprudence, also treasurer of the East Side House, a university 
settlement, from the time of its foundation. He is a member 
of many other social, charitable, and rehgious organizations. 





>•» 




R. A. C. SMITH 



THE ancient town of Dover, England, was the native place 
of R. A. C. Smith, who has now become so prominent and 
forceful a figure in the financial operations of New York and of 
the island of Cuba. He was bora there on Pebruaiy 22, 1857, 
and soon thereafter was taken to Spain, where twelve years of 
his early life were spent. After that he retiu-ned to England and 
there began to devote himself to study. 

Three years after his retm-n to England, however, he made a 
visit to the United States, which changed the whole course of 
his Hfe. The advantages and opportunities offered in this coun- 
try so impressed him that he determined to make this country 
his home. 

For a number of years Mr. Smith was interested to a consider- 
able extent in the construction and equipment of raihoads in 
Cuba. That was while the island was still under Spanish rule. 
His ventures were pretty uniformly successful, and as a result 
he accumulated a handsome fortune, as well as ample capital 
for further operations. In addition to railroad enterprise he had 
control of the gas and electric lighting system of Havana, con- 
sohdating into a single corporation the various companies that 
had originally existed. Finally he undertook the task of com- 
pleting the waterworks system of the Cuban capital. This was 
a work that had baffled the enteiprise and skill of one engineer 
and contractor after another. Mr. Smith took the contract and 
executed it with entire success. 

Mr. Smith was for some years manager and vice-president of 
the gas and electric hghting of both Havana and Matanzas, and 
was prominently identified with various other enterprises in the 
island of Cuba. He still retains extensive interests there, 



365 



366 K. A. C. SMITH 

is president of the American Indies Company, and is connected 
with the Spanish-American Light and Power Company. 

In New York and elsewhere in the United States his business 
operations are extensive. He is a director of the State Trust 
Company, and vice-president of the American Surety Company 
of New York, director and vice-president of the Chicago Union 
Traction Company, and president of the Connecticut Lighting 
and Power Company. He consolidated all the gas companies of 
the city of Rochester, New York, into a single corporation. As 
an authority concerning that important branch of industry he 
was made a member of the Committee on Gras at the World's 
Fair at Chicago. 

Although he has held no public of&ce, Mr. Smith has long taken 
an earnest interest in politics, as a Republican. He was promi- 
nently identified with the Brooklyn Young Republican Club of 
Brooklyn, New York, before he removed to New York. 

Mr. Smith is a member of the Union League, Republican, 
Colonial, Lawyers', Manhattan, New York Yacht, Atlantic Yacht, 
and Larchmont Yacht clubs, and was formerly a member of the 
Nereid Boat Club. He owns a number of fine horses, and is much 
given to the sport of driving, as weU as to other out-of-door 
diversions. 

Mr. Smith was married some years ago to Miss Ahce Williams 
of Brooklyn, daughter of a former sheriff of K i ngs County. 




FREDERICK SMYTH 



rpHE office of Recorder of the city of New York is one of the 
X most varied and important in its dnties of all public places 
in the metropolitan mumcipahty. The Recorder is not only a 
judge of the Court of General Sessions, and thus the presiding 
officer at many of the most important criminal trials, hut also a 
member of the Sinking Fund Commission and of numerous other 
municipal and charitable boards. The man who holds such an 
office is therefore to be regarded as a man of parts and mark, 
enjoying iii an especial degree the confidence of the community. 
Among those who have held it in recent years none is better 
known than the subject of this sketch. 

Frederick Smyth was born in County Galway, Ireland, in 
August, 1837, of purely Irish ancestry. His father, Matthew 
Thomas Smyth, was the head of a well-known county family, 
and for some time fiUed the important place of Sheriff of County 
Galway. Misfortune overtook the family, however, and in 1849 
young Smyth came to the United States to better his fortunes if 
possible. He had received an excellent education in Ireland, 
which served as a good foundation for the legal studies which he 
began to pursue in New York while he filled the place of an office 
boy and clerk. 

His professional career may be said to have begun with a 
clerkship for Florence McCarthy, judge of the Marine Court, 
which he fiUed with acceptance and promise. Then he became 
a clerk under John McKeon, and later an assistant of the latter 
in the office of United States District Attorney. Meantime, in 
1855, Mr. Smyth had been admitted to practice at the bar of New 
York. 

When Mr. McKeon retired from the office of United States 



367 



368 FREDERICK SMYTH 

District Attorney a reappointment as assistant was offered to 
Mr. Smyth by Mr. McKeon's successor. This was declined, and 
Mr. Smyth became instead Mr. McKeon's partner in law practice. 
This partnership lasted, with mutual satisfaction and profit, un- 
til 1879 when Mr. Smyth was appointed to the ofl&ce of Recorder. 
Mr. McKeon soon afterward became District Attorney and thus 
chief pubHc prosecutor in Mr. Smyth's court. Mr. Smyth was 
appointed Recorder on December 31, 1879, to fill a vacancy. In 
1880 he was elected to the same office to fill a full term of 
fourteen years. This term expired on December 31, 1894. In 
1896 he was elected a justice of the Supreme Court of the State 
of New York, which office he still holds. 

Justice Smyth is a Democrat in pohtics, and is a member of 
the Democratic, Manhattan, and Lotus clubs. He is married, 
but has no children. 

Of his performance of his high duties as Recorder the follow- 
ing estimate, made by a competent authority, may fittingly be 
recalled : 

The integrity, the acuteness, the industry, and the faithfulness which he gives 
to the performance of his offlcial duties are well known, but fewer persons have 
an opportunity of knowing some other traits of character which the Recorder 
shows in private life. As a lawyer he is extremely painstaking, and much of his 
time out of court is occupied in the reading of law-books. He has examined, in 
his long practice, a large number of titles to important pieces of property, and 
discovered not a few imperfections which others have overlooked. His skiU as a 
cross-examiner is remembered by many an opponent at the bar. His careful- 
ness in financial matters has been of great value in his position as a member of 
the Sinking Fund Commission. Every voucher before he signs it is carefully 
scrutinized, and he signs nothing which has not been audited by officers in whom 
he has confidence. He has made several important reforms in the work of the 
Sinking Fund Commission, and has saved thousands of dollars to the city by 
more exact systems of financiering than those formerly in use. As a friend and 
in social relations he is loyal, kind, and genial. He relates, with much humor, 
incidents of his early practice at the bar and experiences since he has been a 
member of the bench. If he were not unwilling that they should be publicly 
known, his friends could relate many incidents of his charity to dependants and 
to those who are ill or in trouble. These private virtues, while less known to 
the public than his sterner ones, go to make up that remarkably vigorous and 
many-sided personality known to all New-Yorkers as the Recorder of the city. 



ELBRIDGE GERRY SNOW 



AS his name indicates, Elbridge Gerry Snow is of New Eng- 
J^\- land ancestry. He is a direct descendant of Stephen Hop- 
kins, who came over in the Mayflower and was one of the signers 
of the famous Mayflower compact. Stephen Hopkins's daughter 
Constance married Nicholas Snow, and fi-om them Mr. Snow is 
descended. On the paternal side, also, the American ancestry 
includes Thomas Prence, who was born in Lechlade, England, 
in 1600, and who came hither by way of Leyden to Plymouth, 
in 1620-21. He founded Eastham, Massachusetts, in 1643, 
built the first bark in a New England ship-yard, established 
the Cape Cod fisheries, led a corjis in the Pequod War, and 
was Governor of the Massachusetts Colony for nineteen years. 
His daughter Jane married Mark Snow. 

On the maternal side the first ancestor of note was Sir Nicho- 
las Woodruff, who was Lord Mayor of London in 1579. His 
descendant, Mathew Woodruff, came to this country from 
Devonshire. Jonathan Coe, another maternal ancestor, was a 
sergeant in the War of the Revolution. 

In the last generation of the Snow and Woodruff families, El- 
bridge Gerry Snow, M. D., married Eunice Woodi'uff. They 
lived at Barkhamsted, Connecticut, and there, on January 22, 
1811, their son, Elbridge Geny Snow, was born. In his early 
life the boy was taken by his parents to Waterbury, Connecticut, 
where his father practised his profession. He was later sent to 
the Port Edward Institute, at Fort Edward, New York, and there 
received a good education. Returning to Waterbury, he studied 
law for a time, and then became a clerk in the of&ce of a promi- 
nent local insurance agent. This engagement decided the whole 
bent of his subsequent career. 



36;i 



370 



ELBKIDGE GEKRT SNOW 



About 1862, Mr. Snow, having just attained his majority, came 
to New York city, and obtained employment in the main office 
of the Home Insurance Company, which was one of the princi- 
pal companies which his former employer had represented at 
Waterbury. He remained in the Home Company's office until 
1871, in which year he withdrew from it to become interested in 
an insurance agency. Two years later, however, he returned and 
was welcomed back to the Home Company's office, and has ever 
since maintained his connection with it. 

His capacity for insurance work had already been well proved, 
and he was therefore deemed fit to fill the responsible place of 
State agent for Massachusetts. His headquarters were in the 
city of Boston, where he organized the firm of Holhs & Snow, 
and imder his capable direction the business of the company in 
that city and State was greatly increased. For twelve years he 
held that agency ; then, in 1885, he was recalled to the main 
office in New York and appointed assistant secretary. This put 
him in the line of regular promotion. In 1888, accordingly, he 
was advanced to be second vice-president and a director of the 
company. This place he continues to fill, with conspicuous suc- 
cess. He is also connected with the North River Savings Bank 
and the Metropohtan National Bank, of New York, and with 
various other important properties. He has held and has sought 
no political offices, prefeiTing to devote his attention to his busi- 
ness affairs, and to the fulfilment of the duties of a private 
citizen. 

Mr. Snow is a member of various social organizations, among 
them being the Lotus Club, the Insurance Club, the New Eng- 
land Society of New York, the New York Geological Society, 
the Metropolitan Museum of Ai't, the American Museum of 
Natural History, and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. 

He was married at Waterbury, Connecticut, on September 5, 
1865, to Miss Frances Janet Thompson. One child has been 
bom to them, a son, who bears the name borne by his father 
and grandfather, Elbridge Gerry Snow. 






i 



GEORGE HENRY SOUTHARD 



A LARGE share of the greatness of New York, as of much of 
this nation, is derived from New England sources. Tliis is 
true in the actual family descent of men and in the perpetuation 
of the characteristic spirit which has made New England itself 
great and which insures a measure of greatness wherever it pre- 
vails. Both these conditions are weD exemplified in the case un- 
der present consideration. It was on August 1, 1623, that the 
ship Ann arrived at Plymouth, bearing among her passengers 
the widow Alice Southworth, who presently became the wife of 
Governor William Bradford. Five years later came her two 
sons, Constant and Thomas Southworth, both of whom became 
distinguished men in the colony, and whose names and those of 
their descendants frequently adorn the records of Duxbury and 
Bridgewater. Especially is this true of Constant Southworth, 
who was a companion and co-worker of Standish, Brewster, 
Howland, and the other worthies of those days. He was a 
resident of Duxbury and one of the original proprietors of 
Bridgewater, county registrar, treasm-er of the colony, and 
commissary-general in King Philip's War. Thomas South- 
worth was also eminent for his character and services as a com- 
missioner of the imited colonies and governor of the colony's 
territories at Kennebec. 

Constant South worth's son Nathaniel man-ied Alice Gray in 
1672. Their son Edward mamed Bridget Bosworth in 1711. 
Their eldest son. Constant, married Martha Keith in 1734. Their 
eldest son, Nathaniel, married Catherine Howard in 1762. Their 
son Nathaniel married Patience Shaw in 1793 and settled at 
Lyme, New Hampshire. There theii' son Zibeon Southard was 
born, the family name having been modified from Southworth. 



371 



372 GEOKGE HENKY SOUTHABD 

Zibeon married Helen Maria, daughter of Ebenezer Trescott, and 
to them was bom, on February 23, 1841, a son, to whom they 
gave the names of Greorge Henry. 

George Henry Southard spent his boyhood in Boston, where 
his father was an oil and candle manufacturer and member of 
the Legislature. He was educated at the Enghsh High School, 
graduating in 1856. After working for some years in his father's 
office, he entered the lumber business with Messrs. James & Pope 
in 1881. Four years later he removed to Newburg, New York, and 
was there in the same business. In 1874 he removed to Brook- 
lyn and founded the lumber firm of Southard & Co., New 
York. After a successful and honored business career of more 
than twenty years he became, in 1887, one of the organizers of 
the National Bank of Deposit, of which he became cashier, and 
in the next year of the Frankhn Trust Company of Brooklyn, of 
which he became second vice-president and first secretary. In 
1892 he became president of the Franklin Trust Company, and 
still holds that office. 

Mr. Southard has long been an earnest member of the Repub- 
lican party, and an effective worker for good government, though 
he has accepted no political office. His ability and integrity 
have made him much sought after as a director of important en- 
terprises. Thus he was for years a director of the Maritime Ex- 
change and a member of its finance committee, and is a director 
of the Edison Electric Illuminating Company of Brooklyn, the 
Brooklyn Wharf and Warehouse Company, and the New York 
Fire Insurance Company. He was one of the organizers, first 
secretary, and a director of the New England Society of Newburg, 
and is a member of the Hamilton Club, Rembrandt Club, Riding 
and Driving Club, and New England Society of Brooklyn, and 
of the Union League Club and Down-Town Association of New 
York. He is also a trustee of the Brooklyn Hospital, a member 
of the Board of Home Missions of the Presbyterian Church, a 
member and officer of the First Presbjiierian Church of Brook- 
lyn, a trustee of the Brooklyn Presbytery, and a director of the 
Union Theological Seminary of New York. 



JAMES SPEYER 



THE name of Speyer, belonging to one of the best-known 
business houses and to the family which founded it, is said 
to be taken from the name of that famous town of Speyer, or 
Spires, as we commonly have it, in the Rhine Palatinate, Germany, 
which was the scene of the Diet of Spires in Reformation days, 
and which has otherwise largely figured in history. The present 
family of Speyer has, however, been for many generations settled 
at and identified with the still more famous city of Fraukfort- 
on-Main, which has played so great a part in the politics of Grer- 
many and in the finances of the world. As early as the fom*- 
teenth century the family was settled there. One of its members 
was Michael Speyer, who died in 1586. That the family was one 
of the foremost of the city was well attested at the close of the 
last century; for when, in 1792, the French general Custine 
brought three leading citizens of Frankfort-on-Main to Mayence 
as hostages to guarantee the payment of a war-tax, one of them 
was Isaac Michael Speyer, who at that time was the imperial 
court banker of the old Grerman, or Holy Roman, Empire. The 
family was, indeed, through many generations, prominently 
identified with the business and other interests of Frankfort, 
and of Germany, and was also, as it still remains, conspicuous in 
that practical philanthropy for which the Hebrew race, to which 
the family belongs, is so honorably distinguished. 

Coming down to the present time, Gustavus Speyer was a 
prominent financier in New York, in the house of Speyer & Co., 
formerly Philip Speyer & Co., bankers. This house wall be re- 
membered as one of the foremost supports of American credit 
dm'ing the Civil War, working with singular effect to place 
United States bonds with German investors, and to maintain 



373 



374 



JAMES SPEYER 



the repute of such seciirities abroad. It has also been instru- 
mental in selling large amounts of American railroad and other 
securities abroad, notably those of the Central and Southern 
Pacific railways. It has direct connections with the parent 
house at Frankfort, and with branches in London and elsewhere. 
Gustavus Speyer married Miss Sophie Rubin, and to them was 
bom the subject of this sketch, James Speyer, at their home in 
this city, in 1861. The boy was educated chiefly at Frankfort- 
on-Main, and there, at the age of twenty-two, he began practical 
business life in the banking-house of his fathers. Thence he was 
in time ti-ansferred to the branches in London and Paris, to com- 
plete his business education. Finally he came to New York and 
entered the New York banking-house of Speyer & Co. (formerly 
Philip Speyer & Co.), of which he is now the head. Mr. Speyer 
is also a partner in the firms of Speyer Brothers of London, and 
L. Speyer EDissen of Frankfort-on-Main. 

Mr. Speyer is a trustee of the Mutual Life Insurance Company, 
and also of the German Savings Bank. 

In politics he has always been independent, but he was an 
active member of the executive committee of the Committee of 
Seventy, and in 1896 he was appointed a member of the Board 
of Education by Mayor William L. Strong. He served as school 
commissioner, however, only one year, resigning in 1897. 

In many of the most intelligent and well-directed philanthropic 
movements of the city Mr. Speyer has taken a prominent part. 
He is treasurer of the University Settlement Society, and the 
Provident Loan Society, of which he was one of the founders, 
made him its president in 1896. 

Mr. Speyer is a member of numerous leading clubs and social 
organizations of the city. In November, 1897, he was married 
to Mrs. John A. Lowery, a daughter of the late John Dyneley 
Piince of this city. 




JOHN WILLIAM STERLING 



THE family of Sterling is one of the most ancient and famous 
ones in the history of the British Isles, where its name 
has for centimes been home by an important city. The family 
hne is traced back to Walter de Streverlying of Kier, Scotland, 
who was bom in 1130, and among whose descendants were 
numerous knights, barons, and other peers of the realm. 

In the early part of the seventeenth century, however, one of 
its members, John Sterling, removed from Scotland to Hertford- 
shire, England, and established a branch of the family there. 
He had two sons. Sir John Sterhng and David Sterling, who 
migrated to the New World. David Sterling came over in 
1651, and settled at Charlestown, Massachusetts. He had a 
son named William Sterhng, who was bom at Charlestown, 
but on reaching manhood removed to Haverhill, Massachusetts, 
and thence, in 1703, to Lyme, Connecticut. One of his sons, 
Jacob Sterhng, in timi removed from Lyme to Stratford, Fairfield 
Coimty, Connecticut, and there founded the branch of the family 
from which came the subject of this sketch. 

On the maternal side Mr. Sterling is descended from John 
Plant, who came from England about the year 1636, and was 
one of the early settlers of the town of Branfoi'd, Connecticut. 
From John Plant was descended David Plant, who was Lieuten- 
ant-Governor of Connecticut for four years, 1823-27, Speaker of 
the Connecticut House of Representatives, three times a State 
Senator, and for one term Representative in Congress. 

In the last generation Captain John WilMam Sterling of Strat- 
ford, Connecticut, son of David and Deborah (Strong) Sterling, 
was a man of high culture and much force of character. He 
was for many years commander of important ships in the South 



375 



376 



JOHN WILLIAM STEELING 



American and China trade. He married Miss Catherine Tom- 
linson Plant, daughter of the David Plant above mentioned. To 
them was born, at Stratford, Connecticut, in May, 1844, a son to 
whom the name of his father was given. 

John Wilham Sterling, the second of the name, was carefully 
educated in preparation for college at Stratford Academy, an in- 
stitution of high rank. At the end of his course there he was 
o-raduated with the rank of valedictorian. He then entered Yale 
College, where he soon gained eminence as a student and in the 
social life of the institution. He took one of the much-coveted 
Townsend prizes, and enjoyed the likewise much-desired distinc- 
tion of election to Skull and Bones, one of the famous secret 
societies of the senior class, membership in which is limited to 
fifteen and is supposed to be the highest social honor in uni- 
versity hfe. He was also a member of Alpha Delta Phi, one of 
the foremost of the Greek-letter fraternities. At the end of his 
course he was chosen a member of the distinguished graduate 
fraternity of Phi Beta Kappa, and was graduated from Yale with 
high honors in the class of 1864. The following year he spent 
in special study of English literature and history under Pro- 
fessor Noah Porter, who was afterward president of Yale. Mr. 
Sterling next came to New York city and entered the Law School 
of Columbia College, where he pursued a brilhant career, and was 
graduated as valedictorian of the class of 1867. 

At about the time of his graduation fi'om the law school Mr. 
Sterling was admitted to practice at the bar of New York. He 
then entered the employment of the distinguished lawyer, David 
Dudley Field, being the youngest clerk m his office. In May, 
1868, he left Mr. Field to become managing clerk in another 
office, but in the following December he returned to become, not 
a clerk, but a partner of Mr. Field, in the firm of Field & Shear- 
man. This firm pursued a prosperous and distinguished career 
for a number of years. In September, 1873, however, Mr. Field 
retired from it, and the firm-name was thereupon changed to 
that of Shearman & Stei'ling, the senior partner of it being 
Thomas Gr. Shearman. 

This firm has been connected with a number of the most 
famous cases in recent American jurisprudence. It had com- 
plete charge of the interests of Henry Ward Beecher in the 



JOHN WILLIAM STERLING 377 

litigation brought against him by Theodore Tilton and others, 
which began in 1874 and lasted two years. The gi"eat trial con- 
sumed six months, and ended in the defeat of the plaintiffs and 
their payment of the costs. In 1876, also, Shearman & Sterling 
were retained as counsel in a number of suits arising out of the 
famous " Black Friday " in WaU Street in 1869. 

In recent years Mr. Sterhng has given his attention largely to 
railroad interests. He has been personally concerned in the 
formation, foreclosure, and reorganization of various important 
companies. Among those with which he has Ijeen thus con- 
nected are the International and Great Northern of Texas, in 
1879; the South Carolina Railroad, in 1881; the Columbus, 
Chicago and Indian Central, the Canadian Pacific, and the 
Chicago, St. Louis and Pittsburg, in 1882 ; the Great Northern, 
in 1890 ; and the Duluth and Winnipeg, in 1896. 

He aided in organizing the New York and Texas Land Com- 
pany in 1880. He is counsel for many trust estates, and for 
many British corporations and investors. He is vice-president 
of the Pennsylvania Coal Company, and a director of the 
National City Bank, the New York Security and Trust Company, 
the Evansville and Terre Haute Railroad Company, the Duluth, 
South Shore and Atlantic Railway Company, and the Bond and 
Mortgage Guarantee Company. 

Mr. Sterling is a meml^er of numerous clubs and other organi- 
zations of the highest class. Among these may be mentioned 
the Union League, University, Lawyers', Yale, Union, Tuxedo, 
and Riding clubs, of New York ; the Down-Town Association, 
the New England Society of New York, the American Fine 
Arts Society, and the Phi Beta Kappa and Alpha Delta Phi 
fi'aternities. 

He has retained and cultivated, throughout all his busy life, 
his early love of hterature, and has amassed a fine private library 
of several thousand volumes, included in which are some rare 
editions and works of exceptional value. 

He has also retained a warm interest in the welfare of his 
Alma Mater. Osborn Hall, at Yale, was the gift of one of his 
clients, and was built under Mr. Sterling's supervision, at a cost 
of nearly two hundred thousand dollars. Yale conferred upon 
him, in 1893, the degree of LL. D. 



LISPENARD STEWART 

SCOTCH, Huguenot, and German blood mingle in the veins 
of the subject of the present sketch. The Stewart family- 
is Scotch, bearing the name of the last Scottish kings. Lis- 
penard Stewart is in the seventh generation of direct descent 
from Charles Stewart of Garth, an officer in the army of WilUam 
III, who won distinction at the battle of the Boyne. The Lis- 
penards were French Huguenots, and their first American repre- 
sentative was Antoine Lispenard, who came hither in 1690. Mr. 
Stewart is his hneal descendant, in the seventh generation. The 
father of Mr. Stewart, Lispenard Stewai-t, Sr., married Mary 
Rogers Rhinelander, a member of a distinguished New York 
family of German origin. 

Lispenard Stewart was born at his father's countiy-seat, 
Brookwood, at Mount St. Vincent, on the Hudson, now in the 
upper part of this city, on June 19, 1855. He was educated at 
Anthon's and Charlier's schools, in this city, at a school at Peek- 
skill, and at Yale, where he was graduated A. B. in 1876. Later 
he entered the Columbia College Law School, and in 1878 was 
graduated LL. B. He was admitted to the bar, but soon gave up 
the practice of the profession in order to act as trustee of several 
large estates. 

Mr. Stewart became interested in pohtics, as a Repubhcan, at 
an early date. For many years he was a member of the New 
York Republican County Committee, and for some time its 
treasurer. Nominations for Congress, the Legislature, and the 
Board of Aldermen were offered to him fi-om time to time, but 
he did not accept any until 1888. In that year he accepted 
nomination as a Presidential Elector on the Republican ticket, 
and, being elected, was made secretary of the New York Elec- 

378 



LISPENAKD STEWART 379 

toral College. The year following he was his party's candidate 
for State Senator in the Eighth District of this city, and, after a 
memorable contest, was elected, the only Repubhcan Senator 
from the city of New York. He proved a valuable legislator, 
among his achievements being the introduction and passage of 
the bill creating the Rapid Transit Commission of this city. In 
1893 he dechned the treasurership of the National League of 
Republican Clubs. In that year he was one of the Committee 
of Thirty to reorganize the local Republican party. In 1894 he 
was prominently considered in connection with the Mayoralty 
nomination. In 1895 Governor Morton offered him a place on 
his staff, and also appointed him a State Commissioner of 
Prisons to represent the First Judicial District. He was elected 
by the commission its first president, and still holds this posi- 
tion for the fourth consecutive term. He was a delegate to the 
Republican National Convention of 1896. 

Mr. Stewart has often served on important non-pohtical com- 
mittees, such as that of one hundred leading citizens which 
escorted the body of Gfeneral Grant from Saratoga to New York ; 
that on the Columbus Quadiicenteunial Celebration ; that on 
celebrating the centenary of Washington's first inauguration ; 
that on the erection of the Washington Arch ; and that on Man- 
hattan Day at the Chicago Columbian World's Fau-. 

Mr. Stewart has long been prominent in club and social life. 
He is a member of the Union League, Union, Metropolitan, Uni- 
versity, Riding, Down-Town, and Repubhcan clubs, and has 
been a governor of several of them. He is a trustee of the Real 
Estate Trust Company, the Grant Monument Association, and 
the New York Zoological Society, and is on the governing boards 
of the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary, the Pi'ison Association, 
and the Protestant Episcopal Missionary Society for Seamen. 
He has spent much time in travel in all parts of the world. He 
is not married. 




WILLIAM RHINELANDER STEWART 



THE late Lispenard Stewart was descended from the famous 
Scotch famil}^ of Stewart, kin to the Stuart sovereigns, and, 
on the maternal side, fi-om the French Huguenot family of Lis- 
penard, members of which were prominent in the early history of 
this city. Mr. Stewart married Miss Mary Rhinelander, a mem- 
ber of the well-known family of that name, of German origin. 

WilUam Rhinelander Stewart, son of the foregoing, was born 
in New York, on December 3, 1852, and was educated at Char- 
lier's Institute, Anthon's Classical School, and the Law School of 
Colimibia CoUege. From the last he was graduated in 1873. 
He was admitted to the bar, and entered the law office of Piatt, 
Gerard & Buckley. He remained with that firm for several 
years, meantime carrying on a private business. 

Being of independent means, Mr. Stewart has been able to 
devote much time and labor to pubhc interests. He was 
appointed by the President, in 1880, one of the commissioners for 
the World's Fair which it was proposed to hold in New York 
in 1883. In 1881 Governor Cornell made him a member of the 
committee of fifteen to receive and entertain the delegation of 
descendants of French officers who fought under Rochambeau 
and De Grasse in our Revolution. He thus did valuable service 
in connection with the centenary of the smTender of York- 
town. In 1882 Governor Cornell appointed Mr. Stewart a com- 
missioner of the State Board of Charities. By successive 
reappointments he has served in that capacity ever since. In Feb- 
ruary, 1894, he was unanimously elected president of the board. 

It was Mr. Stewart who conceived the idea of commemorating 
the centenary of the inaugm-ation of Washington as first Presi- 
dent of the United States by spanning Fifth Avenue, at its 



380 




^7-/dSiz^^^. 



WILLIAM BHINELANDER STEWART 



381 



iunction with Washington Square, with a triumphal arch. By 
personal efforts among his friends and neighbors, he secui-ed the 
erection of the temporary arch in AprU, 1889, without expense 
to the city. The arch was deemed the finest decorative feature 
of the pageant, and a demand arose for its perpetuation m per- 
manent marble. A committee for the purpose was formed, with 
Mr. Stewart as treasurer. Largely through his personal efforts 
the work was successfully completed. The last stone was laid 
on April 30, 1892, by Mr. Stewart, and on May 4, 1895, m behalt 
of the committee, he f ormaUy presented the structure to the city, 
with impressive ceremonies. The arch had cost one hundred 
and twenty-eight thousand doUars, all of which was contributed 

fi'om private funds. ,, t, • 4. • 

Mr Stewart joined Company K of the Seventh Regiment m 
1871 and served with credit for nearly eight years. He has 
lon<^'been a member of the Protestant Episcopal Church, and 
for ''eight years was superintendent of the great mission Sunday- 
sohool of Grace Chapel, with over a thousand pupils. He is a 
vestryman and treasurer of Grace Church, a trustee of the 
Greenwich Savings Bank, and a director of the Corn Exchange 
Bank. In 1898 he was president of the Twenty-fifth National 
Conference of Charities and Correction, in this city, and made a 
notable address on " The Duty of the State to the Dependent 
and Erring." In politics Mr. Stewart was a Repubhcan until 
1883, since which time he has been independent of party hues. 
He has been much interested in the reform of municipal ad- 
ministration, and was a member of the Committee of Seventy m 
1894, and of the Committee of Fifty in 1895. 

He was married, in 1879, to Miss Anne M. Armstrong of Bal- 
timore. Of their three children, two, a son and a daughter, 
survive He belongs to many clubs, including the Century, 
Metropohtan, Union, Tuxedo, and Down-Town, of which latter 
he is secretary. 



g^ 




JAMES STILLMAN 



JAMES STILLMAN was born on June 9, 1850, the son of 
Charles Stillman and Ehzabeth Goodrich Stillman, who were 
both natives of Connecticut, where their Enghsh ancestors 
settled about the middle of the seventeenth century. His early 
education was at Hartford, Connecticut, where his parents then 
resided, and afterward at the Churchill School at Sing Sing, 
New York. At the age of eighteen he became a clerk in the 
office of Smith, Woodward & Stillman, cotton merchants of 
New York, in which firm his father had long been interested. 
Within two years he was admitted to full partnership in the 
reorganized firm of Woodward & Stillman. Since the death of 
Mr. Woodward, in 1899, Mr. Stillman has been at the head of 
the firm. Its credit has always been of the highest, and its 
capital far in excess of the requu'ements of its large business. 

The relations formerly existing between this fii-m and the 
City Bank of New York brought Mr. Stillman into close rela- 
tions with Moses Taylor, the great merchant and president of 
that bank. On the death of Mr. Taylor, in 1882, his son-in-law, 
Percy R. Pyne, was elected president of the bank, then known 
as the National City Bank. Upon his retirement, in 1891, Mr. 
Stillman, then the youngest member of the board of directors of 
that bank, was elected and has ever since continued its presi- 
dent. When he assumed the* presidency of the bank, its capital 
was $1,000,000, its surplus about $2,412,000, and its average 
deposits were about $12,000,000. In the early part of 1900, 
$9,000,000 of new capital was subscribed to the bank, thus mak- 
ing its capital stock $10,000,000, and its surplus was over $5,000,- 
000. Its average deposits had been increased to about $120,000,- 
000. This bank is to-day beyond question the greatest in the 



382 



JAMES STILLMAN 383 

United States, and bids fair to become the great financial com- 
petitor of the Bank of England in controlling large aggregations 
of capital for the pm-pose of carrjdng on the great enterprises of 
the world. During the last year, the transactions in foreign 
exchange, for which Mr. Stillman has created a special depart- 
ment in his bank, have involved the active employment of more 
money than is used by the Bank of England, and, in fact, by any 
bank in the world. 

This bank has not only kept on hand a large amount of cash 
in excess of its legal reserve, but kept almost the whole of it in 
actual gold or gold certificates. It has thus been enabled at 
various times to subscribe to a larger portion of government 
loans than any other bank or syndicate of bankers in the coun- 
try, and actually to pay for its subscriptions in the yellow 
metal. It has also been able to give the necessary security for 
deposits from the United States government to very large 
amounts. Thus in November, 1897, when the government, in 
making a settlement of the debt due it from the Union Pacific 
Raih'oad Company, decided to deposit the amount in New York 
banks and thus get it into circulation, IMr. Stillman promptly 
deposited with the Treasury Department $50,000,000 of United 
States bonds and securities, and thus gained for the City Bank 
the privilege and prestige of being designated as chief depositary 
and distributing agent for the millions thus paid over. A similar 
instance, though not quite to the same extent, occuiTcd in De- 
cember, 1899, upon the temporary diversion of the internal 
revenue receipts from the Sub-Treasury to the banks. 

Mr. Stillman is also president of the Second National Bank, 
and one of the leading dii^ectors of the Hanover National Bank 
and the Bank of the Metropolis. He is a trustee and member 
of the executive committee of the United States Trust Company, 
the Farmers' Loan and Trust Company, and the New York 
Security and Trust Company; and a director of the Central 
Realty Bond and Trust Company, of the American Surety Com- 
pany, the Bowery Savings Bank, and the Fifth Avenue Safe 
Deposit Company. He is a director of the Union Pacific, 
Northern Pacific, Baltimore and Ohio, Chicago and Northwest- 
em, and Delaware, Lackawanna and Western, and other leading 
railroads. He has been a member of numerous syndicates, one 



384 JAMES STILLMAN 

of the latest of which was the Harriman Syndicate, which pur- 
chased the Chicago and Alton Raih'oad. He is largely inter- 
ested in the ConsoUdated Gas Company of New York, of which 
he has been a trustee for many years, and has recently been one 
of the most important factors in bringing about a combination 
of all the gas and electric light interests in the city of New York. 
He is also a director of the Western Union Telegraph Company. 

With all his varied interests, he has always contrived to find 
leisure for outdoor recreation. Since 1874 he has been a mem- 
ber of the New York Yacht Club, and his victorious sails have 
brought him many trophies. He has also taken great interest 
in farming and cattle-breeding, and has on his large estate at 
Cornwall-on-Hudson one of the finest herds of Jerseys in the 
United States. He was one of the founders and is still an active 
member of the organization known as the " New York Farmers." 
He depends for healthful exercise upon his bicycle. He is a 
great reader and much devoted to art and music, and is a skilled 
amateur photographer. 

His winter residence is at No. 7 East Fortieth Street, New 
York city, and his family divide their time in summer between 
his beautiful residences at Newport and Cornwall-on-Hudson. 
Among the many clubs of which he is a member are the Union, 
Union League, Metropolitan, Reform, Lawyers', Century, and 
the Turf and Field. He is also a meinber of the Tuxedo Club 
and of the Washington Metropolitan Club. 

His private charities are numerous and varied. His latest 
act of public generosity consists of the gift of a hundred 
thousand dollai^s to Harvard University for the erection of an 
infirmary for students, and an endowment for defraying the ex- 
penses of its maintenance. 




GAGE ELI TARBELL 



THE career of Gage E. Tarbell is a striking example of the 
success that is bound to follow real merit and intelligent 
and well-directed energy. To these qualities and the exercise 
of them has been due every advancement achieved in all his 
honorable and brilliant progress in business life. 

He comes of good New England stock. His father, Charles 
T. Tarbell, was a farmer and lumberman. His mother's maiden 
name was Mabel M. Tillotson. He was bom on September 20, 
1856, at Smithville Flats, among the hills of Chenango County, 
New York, and received his education at the local school and at the 
Clinton Liberal Institute. His boyhood was spent on the farm 
and in the woods where lumber was being cut for market. For 
one year he taught a district school. Then he studied law three 
years, and practised it for four years. Finally he entered the 
business of life-insurance, with which he has ever since been 
associated, and in which he has attained honored prominence 
and marked success. 

Mr. Tarbell was admitted to the bar of New York in 1880, and 
practised law in this State for four years. In connection with 
that profession, he also became a solicitor for the Equitable Life 
Assurance Society, and developed such aptitude for that busi- 
ness that, in 1884, he turned his entire attention to it, becoming 
in that year manager of the Southern New York Department. 
For two years his headquarters were at Binghamton, New 
York. Then, in 1886, he was made general agent for Wisconsin 
and Northern Michigan, with offices at Milwaukee. His power 
as a manager of men and a writer of insurance was soon felt in 
the West, and in 1889 he received a partnership interest in the 
Northwestern Department of the society, with headquarters at 

385 



386 GAGE ELI TAEBELL 

Chicago. The agency of which he then took charge soon be- 
came, under his skilful management, one of the largest in the 
coimtry, and the volume of business which he, personally and 
through his agents, secured for the Equitable has probably 
never been surpassed, if equaled, in the history of life-insur- 
ance. In fact, only seven or eight life-insurance companies 
transacted in all the country a larger amount of business than 
this one agency of this one company did under Mr. Tarbell's 
management. 

Henry B. Hyde, then president of the Equitable, was noted 
for his discrimination in his choice of lieutenants and associates, 
and achieved his great success largely through the exercise of 
this invaluable talent. He was not slow in discovering the value 
of Mr. Tarbell's services to the company, and early marked him 
as one of the " coming men " of the great corporation. At 
length he concluded that Mr. Tarbell's abilities would be exer- 
cised to greater advantage in New York than in a Western city, 
and in the home office than in a mere agency. Accordingly he 
summoned him to New York, and in September, 1893, secui'ed 
his election as third vice-president of the Equitable. 

Since the latter date Mr. Tarbell has had charge of the entire 
agency force of the society. The ability he has shown in this 
position is in accordance with his former achievements, and 
forms a brilhant chapter in the history of the corporation. As 
an evidence of the way in which his work has been appreciated 
by his associates, he was advanced in May, 1899, to the place 
of second vice-president, which office he still holds. 

Mr. Tarbell's absorption in life-insurance has precluded his 
participation in any other businesses, or in political activities. 
He is a popular member of numerous social organizations, among 
which are the Union League Club, the Colonial Club, the Law- 
yers' Club, the New York Athletic Club, the Atlantic Yacht 
Club, the Ardsley Club, the Marine and Field Club, and the 
Dyker Meadow Golf Club. 

Mr. Tarbell was married at Marathon, New York, on December 
21, 1881, to Miss Ella Swift, daughter of George L. Swift. They 
have two children, Swift Tarbell and Louise TarbeU. 



FRANK TILFORD 



TAILLEFER, the old Normans called the family name, and 
you wiD find it often in the early annals of that masterful 
race. The ancient Counts of Angouleme were the founders of 
the family, as is witnessed by the illustration of the surname in 
their heraldic devices for many generations. One of the first- 
known members of the family received great possessions from 
the hand of Charles the Bald of France, in return for his ser- 
vices in uniting Normandy with France, and his son, Guillaume 
de Taillefer, was the first to bear this name, which came to him 
because of an act of valor and extraordinary strength performed 
by him in war in the year 916. From him the family line 
and the name may be traced without a break down to the 
present day. 

Tilford the name became in Scotland, when some of the 
family settled in that country, and TiKord it has remained in 
this country ever since it was brought hither by James Tilford, 
who settled at Argyle, near Albany, New York, a hundred and 
fifty years ago. That pioneer was a soldier in the American 
army throughout the Revolutionary War, and his son, James 
Tilford, was a captain in the War of 1812. The latter's son, 
John M. Tilford, came to New York in 1835, at the age of twenty 
years, and served five years as a clerk in the grocery store of 
Benjamin Albro. Then, with his fellow-clerk, Joseph Park, he 
organized the now world-famous grocery house of Park & 
Tilford. 

Frank Tilford, the youngest son and business successor of 
John M. Tilford, was born in New York on July 22, 1852, and 
was educated in the then well-known Mount Washington Col- 
legiate Institute. Then he entered his father's store, at Sixth 

387 



383 FRANK TILFOBD 

Avenue and Ninth Street, and worked faithfully in one depart- 
ment after another until he had acquired a practical mastery of 
all the details of the business. In 1890 the company was trans- 
formed into a joint-stock corporation, and the senior Mr. Tilford 
became its \T.ce-president. At his death, in January, 1891, Mr. 
Frank Tihord succeeded him in that office, and has continued to 
hold it ever since. Important as that office is, it does not 
monopohze Mr. Tilford's business attention. He has been a 
member of the Real Estate Exchange since 1873, and has made 
some extensive deahngs in real estate, chiefly of an investment 
character, in the upper West Side of the city. He became a 
director of the Sixth National Bank in 1874, and a trustee of 
the North River Savings Bank in 1885. In 1889 he was one of 
the organizers of the Bank of New Amsterdam, of which he is 
now president, and he is also one of the organizers and a trustee 
of the Fifth Avenue Trust Company, vice-president of the Stan- 
dard Gras-Light Company, and a director in many of the powerful 
corporations of New York city and in many of the gas compa- 
nies throughout the country. He is also a member of the 
Chamber of Commerce, president of the New Amsterdam Eye 
and Ear Hospital, a trustee of the Babies' Hospital, and a 
member of the executive committee of the Grant Monument 
Association. 

Mr. Tilford was married, in 1881, to Miss Juha Grreer, daughter 
of James A. Greer and granddaughter of George Greer, a famous 
sugar-refiner of the past generation. They have two daughters, 
Julia and Elsie Tilford. Mr. Tilford has long been a member of 
the Union League Club, and is also a member of the Repub- 
hcan, Colonial, Lotos, Press, New York Athletic, and other 
clubs, and of the Sons of the Revolution. His city home is on 
West Seventy-second Street. It was chiefly designed by Mr. 
Tilford himself, and ranks as one of the handsomest edifices in 
that particularly handsome part of the city. 



CHARLES WHITNEY TILLINGHAST 



AN admirable specimen of the intelligeBt, enterprising, and 
J-A. efficient New England stock of British origin, which has 
not only built up the New England States to their present mag- 
nificent proportions, but has also contributed immeasurably to 
the best development of New York and other States of this 
Union, is to be found in Charles Whitney Tillinghast of Troy, 
New York. He bears the names, which have come to him 
through descent, of two families noted in the annals of Massa- 
chusetts, Rhode Island, and Providence plantations. The fami- 
lies came from England in early colonial times, and were active 
in the industrial, political, and social affairs of the new com- 
munities of which they became members. In the last generation 
the Tillinghast family was represented by Benjamin Allen Til- 
linghast, who was born at Wrentham, Massachusetts, and 
afterward hved at Greenwich, Rhode Island. In the same 
generation of the Whitney family was Miss Julia Whitney, 
daughter of Moses Whitney of Wrentham, Massachusetts, a 
major in the Revolutionary War. Benjamin Allen Tillinghast 
and Juha Whitney were married, and to them was born the sub- 
ject of this sketch. 

Charles W. Tillinghast was born at East Creenwich, Rhode 
Island, on May 23, 1824, and received his education there and 
at Lanesboro, Massachusetts. His parents having removed 
to Troy, New York, he became a resident of that city at the 
end of his school-days, and entered business there. He was 
only sixteen years old when, in 1840, he became a clerk in 
the hardware store of Warrens, Hart & Leslie, afterward J. M. 
Warren & Co. There he remained, applying himself diligently 
to the business, and steadily working his way, by sheer merit, to 

889 



390 CHAKLES WHITNEY TILLINGHAST 

higher and higher places in the establishment. Forty-seven 
years after his entry into the establishment, to wit, in 1887, the 
firm was transformed into a corporation, and he was chosen its 
vice-president, which place he held for some years, and then was 
made president. Thus, for nearly sixty years, he has been iden- 
tified with one business house, in which time he has made his 
way from the lowest place in it to the highest. 

That, however, is not the full measm*e of his activities. He 
has other important business interests. He is vice-president of 
the Troy Savings Bank, a director of the United National Bank, 
and a director of various railroad and manufacturing companies 
at Troy and elsewhere. He is president of the Troy Orphan 
Asylimi, the Troy Female Seminary, and trustee of the Marshall 
Infirmary and several other public institutions. He was the 
prime mover in securing the Post-office Building at Troy, and 
has long been a leader in most important public enterprises in 
that city. One of its most highly respected citizens, he is closely 
identified with its best civic, social, financial, and political 
interests. 

Mr. Tillinghast has for many years taken an active interest in 
pohtics. He is an earnest Republican, and has worked unspar- 
ingly for the success of that party and for the promotion of the 
cause of good government in city. State, and nation. He has 
held no pubhc office of a political character, although frequently 
urged to do so. He has preferred to use his influence as a pri- 
vate citizen, as a broad-minded, liberal man of affairs, of genial 
disposition and the highest integrity. 

He is an active member and warden of St. John's Protestant 
Episcopal Church at Troy, and is a member of the Troy Club. 
He was married, in 1852, to Miss Mary B. Southwick of Troy, 
and has one daughter, Frances, who is now Mrs. Barker. 




CHARLES HARRISON TWEED 



DESPITE the absence of any law of primogeniture or any 
system of hereditary dignities, political or social, the claims 
of honorable descent are by no means to be ignored in this coun- 
try. To be a worthy descendant of worthy ancestors is a matter 
of legitimate personal gratification. To be able to number among 
one's direct ancestors some of the foremost founders of this na- 
tion is a circumstance not idly to be passed by in the record of a 
man's life. The names of Winthrop, Dudley, and Sargent, for 
example, are to be prized in the genealogical hue of any one who 
can truly claim them. 

The ancestry of Charles Harrison Tweed includes Governor 
John Winthrop of Massachusetts Bay Colony, Grovernor John 
Winthrop, Jr., of Connecticut, and Governor Thomas Dudley 
and Governor Joseph Dudley of Massachusetts Bay Colony, 
those families having been united by the marriage, in 1707, 
of John Winthrop, F. R. S., grandson of Governor Winthrop of 
Connecticut, with Ann Dudley, daughter of Governor Joseph 
Dudley. The daughter of this latter couple married Epes 
Sargent, and was the mother of Colonel Paul Dudley Sargent 
of the Revolutionary army. The father of Charles Harrison 
Tweed was the Hon. Harrison Tweed, treasm-er of the Taunton 
(Massachusetts) Locomotive Manufacturing Company, Repre- 
sentative and Senator in the Massachusetts Legislature, and a 
member of the Governor's Council. He married Huldah Ann 
Pond, and to them was born during their temporary residence at 
Calais, Maine, on September 26, 1844, the subject of this sketch. 

His boyhood was spent at his father's home, at Taunton, Mas- 
sachusetts, where he attended school. He was fitted for college 
at Bristol Academy, and imder the private tutorship of Dr. Henry 
B. Wheelright of Harvard. He entered Harvard in 1861, and 

391 



392 



CHARLES HABRISON TWEED 



was graduated in 1865 at the head of his class. Then he took 
up the study of law, at fii'st under the Hon. Edmund H. Bennett, 
who was afterward dean of the Law School of Boston University, 
and then in the Harvard Law School. 

Having completed his law studies, Mr. Tweed came to New 
York, where he was admitted to practice at the bar in 1868, and 
began work. His first engagement was in the oflB.ce of Evarts, 
Southmayd & Choate. He was in its employ for a few years, 
and on January 1, 1874, became a member of that distinguished 
firm. That connection was maintained until January 1, 1883, 
when he withdrew from it to become general counsel for the 
Central Pacific Raih'oad Company, the Chesapeake and Ohio 
Railway Company, and associated corporations. Afterward, 
upon its organization, he became counsel for the Southern Pacific 
Company, and he is now the counsel for that company and for 
the various alhed and acquired corporations which compose its 
giant railway system ; for the Central Pacific Railroad Company ; 
for the Mexican International Railroad Company ; for the Pacific 
Mail Steamship Company ; and for various other corporations. 

The performance of the duties connected with these engage- 
ments is sufficient to monopolize the major part of any man's 
attention, even of so diligent and competent a practitioner as Mr. 
Tweed. It is not to be wondered at, therefore, that he has re- 
frained from participation in poHtical matters, save as a private 
citizen, and has never sought nor accepted pubhc office. 

Mr. Tweed is a member of numerous social organizations. In 
college at Harvard he belonged to the Institute of 1770, the Nat- 
ural History Society, the Hasty Pudding Club, and Phi Beta 
Kappa. Afterward he was a member of the Somerset Club and 
the Eastern Yacht Club in Boston. In New York city he is a 
member of the Century Association, the Metropolitan, University, 
Harvard, Players', Riding, Down-Town, Corinthian Yacht, and 
Seawanhaka-Corintliian Yacht clubs. He belongs also to the 
Royal Clyde Yacht Club of Glasgow, Scotland. 

He was married, at Windsor, Vermont, on October 27, 1881, 
to Miss Helen Minerva Evarts, daughter of the Hon. WLUiam M. 
Evarts, formerly Secretary of State of the United States. They 
have four children : Helen, Harrison, Katharine "Winthrop, and 
Mary Winthrop. 




C -ild^^ AaxM^L 



CORNELIUS VANDERBILT 



THE name of Vanderbilt, which has long been associated with 
ideas of great wealth, stanch patriotism, generous phi- 
lanthropy, social leadership, and generally admu-able citizenship 
in the repubhc, is evidently of Holland Dutch origin. The 
family that bears it, however, has been for many generations 
settled in this country, and perfectly "Americanized" in the 
truest senses of the term. The family first arose into national 
prominence in the middle of the nineteenth century. Its head 
at that time was Cornelius Vanderbilt of Staten Island, best 
known as Commodore Vanderbilt. Beginning as a farmer at New 
Dorp, Staten Island, New York, he presently became interested 
in steamboats on the Hudson River and elsewhere, and then in 
the New York and Harlem and the New York Central and Hud- 
son River raih-oads. At the time of his retirement fi-om busi- 
ness he was one of the richest men in the country, and the ISead 
of one of the greatest railroad systems in the world. 

Commodore Vanderbilt was succeeded, as the head of his great 
enterprises, by his son, WiUiam H. Vanderbilt. The latter con- 
tinued the policies established by his father, and greatly extended 
the Vanderbilt influence in the railroad world, and increased the 
size of the Vanderbilt fortune. He married Miss Kissam, 
daughter of a leading New York banker, in whose banking house 
IVIi". Vanderbilt had been for a time employed. Commodore 
Vanderbilt had made the name of the family synonymous with 
wealth, and had won for it an enviable reputation for patriotism 
by his fine support of the government in the Civil War. Mr. and 
Mrs. William H. Vanderbilt first gave it high social leadership in 
New York city. They built the famous brownstone " Vander- 

393 



39-i CORNELIUS VANDEBBILT 

bilt houses " on Fifth Avenue, which for years were one of the 
wonders of the city, and were afterward sui-passed only by houses 
built by later members of the same family. 

Wilham H. Vanderbilt died in December, 1885, leaving four 
sons and four daughters. His successor as the head of the 
family and the head of the great railroad and other interests of 
the family was his eldest son, Cornelius Vanderbilt. The lat- 
ter proved a most able business man, and materially added to 
the wealth of the family. He also identified himself with many 
rehgious, educational, and philanthropic works. He was a valued 
promoter of the Young Men's Christian Association movement. 
His gifts of buildings and endowments to Yale and other colleges, 
and to hospitals and churches, aggregated milHons of dollars. 
He built at Fifth Avenue and Forty-seventh Street, New York, 
one of the most splendid private residences in the world, and at 
Newport one of the most sumptuous of summer homes. He 
married Miss Ahce Grwynne, daughter of a well-known lawyer of 
Cincinnati, Ohio. Cornelius Vanderbilt, the second of the name, 
died on September 12, 1899, leaving five children. His first chDd, 
William H. Vanderbilt, had died while in his junior year at Yale. 
The second was Cornelius, third of the name, the subject of this 
sketch. The others, in order, were Gertrude, now the wife of 
Hem-y P. Whitney of New York, Alfred Gwynne, who was gradu- 
ated at Yale in 1899, Reginald C, and Gladys M. Vanderbilt. 

Cornelius Vanderbilt, the third in direct line to bear that 
honored name, was bom in New York city on September 5, 1873, 
He was educated at St. Paul's School, Concord, New Hampshire, 
and at Yale University. His rank as a scholar was high, and he 
was popular and influential in the social Ufe of the university. 
In his junior year he was treasurer and secretary of the St. 
Paul's Club, composed of former students at St. Paul's School, 
and in his senior year he was a member of the Scroll and Key 
Society. In 1895 he was graduated with the degree of B. A. 
Afterward, having a decided bent for scientific and mechanical 
pursuits, he studied at the Sheffield Scientific School of Yale, 
and there received, in 1898, the degree of Ph. B., and in 1899 
that of M. E. (Mechanical Engineer), 

It was only natural, in view of the history of his family for 
three generations before him, that Mr. Vanderbilt should develop 



'ill 



'M 



CORNELIUS VANDERBILT 395 

a strong practical interest in railroads. While he was in the 
Sheffield Scientific School he made raiboad locomotives a special 
study, and came to the conclusion that there was room for 
further improvement in the construction of such engines, es- 
pecially in respect to the fire-box. Upon leaving the institution, 
he decided to put his theories into actual practice. He therefore 
secured an engagement in the service of the New York Central 
and Hudson River Railroad Company, the great corporation with 
which his family had for three generations been identified. He 
at first worked as a draftsman in the office of the superin- 
tendent of motive power and rolUng stock, and there perfected 
his plans for a new engine. Then he was transferred to the car 
and engine shops at Albany, and personally worked at the con- 
struction of the locomotive. When completed, the engine was 
put to several severe trials, and then into regular work on the 
Mohawk division of the road, and proved entirely successful. 
Mr. Vanderbilt also designed some improvements in tugboats, 
and other mechanisms, and has served the railroad company 
efficiently in a variety of directions. 

Mr. Vanderbilt is a member of several prominent professional 
and social organizations, but has devoted his time and attention 
more to business than to mere diversions. He is a member of 
the Knickerbocker Club, the Metropolitan Club, the New York 
Yacht Club, and the Seawauhaka-Corinthian Yacht Club. He 
is also a member of the Engineers' Club of New York. 

He was married, on August 3, 1896, to Miss Grace Wilson, the 
ceremony taking place at the residence of the bride's father, in 
New York city. Mrs. Vanderbilt is the daughter of Mr. and 
Mrs. Richard T. Wilson, who came to New York many years ago 
from the South, and have been prominent members of the best 
society. Another of their daughters is Mrs. Ogden Goelet of 
New York, and a third is Mrs. M. H. Herbert of England, and 
one of their sons married Miss Carrie Astor of New York. Rich- 
ard T. Wilson is the head of the firm of R. T. Wilson & Co., 
bankers of New York, one of the foremost financial houses in 
the city. 

Mr. and Mrs. Vanderbilt make their home in New York. They 
have two childi-en : Comehus, born on April 30, 1898, and Grace, 
bom on September 25, 1899. 




ALFRED VAN SANTVOORD 



THE Empire State of New York wears its title by various 
rights. It is foremost in population, in wealth, in indus- 
try, and in business generally among its fellow-commonwealths 
of the Union. But perhaps in no respect is its imperial rank 
more strongly and vitally marked than in that of commerce. 
This apphes to both domestic and foreign trade. For many 
years about two thirds of all the exports and imports of the 
whole nation passed through the single port of New York. To- 
day the proportion of exports has fallen off to one half of the 
whole, or a little less, but the proportion of imports is still main- 
tained. New York is thus not only the foremost port of the 
United States, but it has a greater commerce than all other ports 
put together. 

Intimately connected with this foreign trade, and indeed largely 
the cause of it, is the enormous inland trade of New York, by 
way of the great highways of trafl&c that cross the State. New 
York has the supreme advantage over all other States of fronting 
upon both the Atlantic Ocean and the Grreat Lakes, and of hav- 
ing a splendid harbor on each. Another unrivaled advantage is 
found in the Hudson River, broad, deep, and commodious for 
commerce, opening a great highway from the ocean far up into 
the heart of the continent, and thence, by means of its natural 
and artificial tributaries, connecting with the inland seas which 
wash the shores of the richest Western States. It has long been 
a truism that the Erie Canal and the Hudson River were the 
sources of New York city's gi-eatness. That means they were 
the sources of the commercial greatness of the State, and, we 
may confidently add, of the United States. And the men who 
opened up that great highway of trade were the commercial 
pioneers and f oimders and builders of the present greatness of the 



396 





Cv,^^-\ <i C^\^yJC^i~Tr-0' 



-^ 



f 



ALFRED VAN SANTVOORD 397 

nation. With such a man, and the son of such a man, we have 
to deal in the present brief biography. 

The Holland Dutch were the first settlers of New York, both 
the city and the eastern part of the State, including the Hudson 
valley and some of the region lying west of it, and then' descen- 
dants are numerous and dominant in many localities there to 
this day. They have for generations been honorably and effec- 
tively identified with the substantial development of the commu- 
nities in which they are settled. 

Alfred Van Santvoord, or Commodore Van Santvoord, as he 
is famiharly known, comes directly from a vigorous and virile 
stock. His father was Abraham Van Santvoord, one of the 
pioneers of the transportation business on the Hudson River, and 
a man of eminence in commercial, political, and social affairs. At 
the time of the War of 1812, Abraham Van Santvoord was presi- 
dent of the then village of Utica, New York, and one of the most 
influential men in that part of the State. In those times of storm 
and stress the Village Corporation of Utica issued an amount of 
fractional currency, and specimens of this, bearing the signature 
of Abraham Van Santvoord, president, are still treasured by the 
subject of this sketch as precious relics. The elder Van Sant- 
voord had also at that time a contract with the federal govern- 
ment for supplying munitions of war and for transporting 
them. When the Erie Canal was opened, Abraham Van Sant- 
voord extended his operations to it, and was one of the first to 
send boats along that invaluable highway. He removed his 
headquarters from Utica to Rochester in 1821, and finally, recog- 
nizing the supreme importance of the port of New York, he 
estabhshed himself there, with quarters in Jersey City, on the 
New Jersey shore of the harbor. 

Of such paternity Alfred Van Santvoord was bom, at Utica, 
New York. He obtained an excellent common-school education 
in the public schools, and then, at an early age, became his 
father's assistant in the canal and river transportation business. 
For this he was well fitted, and to it his inclination strongly 
turned. The result was that his life has been largely identified 
with that business, and with connecting lines of railroad trans- 
portation. 

He began work for his father as a clerk. His diligence and 



398 ALFKED VAN SANTVOOBD 

aptitude soon won him promotion and an interest in the busi- 
ness, and in time he became his father's successor as the head of 
the business. At that time he was prominently connected with 
the old People's Line of Hudson River steamers, in which he was 
associated with Daniel Drew. After succeeding his father he 
became interested in an independent line of boats on the Hudson, 
which he presently developed into the now famous Albany Day 
Line. He also owned the steamer Mary Powell, which he sold to 
her present owners. He controlled a line between New York and 
Albany, and built and operated some of the largest and best 
freight-towing boats on the river. During the Civil War he 
chartered a number of boats to the federal government for mili- 
tary and naval use. Among these was the River Queen, which 
won a place in history as the meeting-place of Abraham Lincoln 
and Alexander H. Stephens when they had their famous confer- 
ence at Fortress Monroe. Mr. Van Santvoord's popular title of 
Commodore has been derived from his prominent connection 
with shipping interests. 

Mr. Van Santvoord has a multiplicity of business interests, to 
which he has consistently preferred to devote his attention rather 
than to seek pohtical preferment, though the latter has often 
been well within his reach. He is president and chief owner of 
the Albany Day Line of Hudson River steamers, and a director, 
and one of the most influential in each board, of the Delaware 
and Hudson Canal Company, the Albany and Susquehanna Rail- 
road, the Catskill Mountain Railroad, the Chicago, Milwaukee 
and St. Paul Railroad, the New York and Harlem Railroad, and 
the United Raih'oads of New Jersey. He was one of the organ- 
izers of the Lincoln Safe Deposit Company, and was vice-presi- 
dent of each institution from its inception down to a recent 
date. He still remains a director of each. He is also a director 
of the Cairo Raiboad, the Cherry Valley, Sharon and Albany 
Raih'oad, the Equitable Life Assurance Society, the Fourth Ave- 
nue Street Railroad of New York, the Lake Champlain Steam- 
boat Company, the Lake George Steamboat Company, the Otis 
Elevating Railroad Company, and the Spuyten Duyvil and Port 
MoiTis Raih'oad. 

Mr. Van Santvoord has long been an expert and enthusiastic 
yachtsman. In lieu of a country residence he keeps the fine 



ALFRED VAN SANTVOORD 399 

steam-yacht Clermont, named after Fulton's first steamboat, and 
with his family spends much of his time upon it. His city home 
is in West Thirty-ninth Street, New York, and it is a center of 
enjoyable domesticity and of refined social life. He is a member 
of various clubs and other organizations, including the Union 
League, Century, St. Nicholas, Seawanhaka Yacht, Atlantic 
Yacht, and New York Yacht clubs, the American Museum of 
Natural History, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. 

He was married many years ago to Miss Anna Towusend of 
Albany, who died about eight years ago. She bore him four 
children. Of these one was a son, Charles Townsend Van Sant- 
voord, who became associated with his father in business and 
was a man of great promise and fine achievements. He became 
manager of the Albany Day Line, and was apparently destined 
for still more important trusts when he died suddenly a few 
years ago. The other three children are Mrs. Eben E. Olcott, 
Mrs. Wilton Merle Smith, wife of the well-known New York 
clergyman of that name, and Miss Anna Van Santvoord. 

Mr. Van Santvoord has always been a man of essentially 
domestic tastes, finding most pleasiu-e in the company of his 
family and friends, and even in advanced years continues to 
enjoy to the full the society of young people. He is also much in- 
terested in benevolent enterprises. Among his many acts may be 
mentioned the building, under his supervision, of the new Colored 
Home and Hospital in New York, an institution in which his 
wife had manifested a deep interest. 

Mr. Van Santvoord possesses a good hbrary and a valuable 
collection of works of art, though he has not made a specialty of 
acquiring such properties. He has in his long and active life 
made many friends among the foremost business and public men 
of New York and other States. Among these was the late 
William H. Vanderbilt, between whom and Mr. Van Santvoord 
an intimacy of many years' standing existed, which was termi- 
nated only by Mr. Vanderbilt's death. Although, as stated, 
he devotes much of his time to his city home and the steam- 
yacht which is his moval)le summer home, he also visits Long 
Branch, Saratoga, and the Catskills each year — places which 
have long been famihar and favorite resorts of his, and where he 
is always sure of a hearty welcome from hosts of friends. 




ALDACE FREEMAN WALKER 



NEW ENGLAND has contributed men of " light and leading" 
to all businesses and professions and to all parts of the Union. 
Most of these naturally trace their origin to the Massachusetts 
and Connecticut colonies, the hues subsequent thereto diverging 
in many directions. The Walker family, for example, was set- 
tled at Lynn, Massachusetts, in 1630, and thence moved to other 
parts of Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Vermont. At West 
Rutland, in the last-named State, lived, fifty years ago, Aldace 
Walker, D. D., a Congregational minister, and Mary Ann Baker 
Walker, his wife; and there, on May 11, 1812, Aldace Free- 
man Walker, their son, was born. 

He was educated at local schools, at Kimball Union Academy, 
Meriden, New Hampshire, and at Middlebury College, Middle- 
bury, Vermont, from which he was graduated in the summer of 
1862. He had for a year been impatient to get out of coUege 
and into the army, and at once enhsted in a Green Mountain 
regiment, in which he served through the remainder of the war. 
In the summer of 1865 he came back to Vermont and began the 
study of law, first at Walhngford and then in the office of the 
Hon. George F. Edmunds at Burhngton. His law studies were 
completed at Columbia College, New York, and he was admitted 
to the bar and began the practice of his profession in this city. 
In 1873 he returned to Vermont and entered an office in his 
native city of Rutland, where he practised law successfully for 
the next fourteen years as a member of the firm first of 
Prout, Simons & Walker, and then of Prout & Walker. 

Mr. Walker was called from his law office in April, 1887, to be- 
come a member of the Interstate Commerce Commission at 
Washington, and was one of the two Repubhcan members of 



400 





W'-<4-< 



7^(^ 



^ 



ALDACE FKEEMAN WALKER 401 

that body as it was originally constituted by President Cleve- 
land. Two years later he resigned his place, and went to 
Chicago as chairman of the Interstate Commerce Railway Asso- 
ciation. Afterward he became chairman of the Western Traffic 
Association, and subsequently commissioner of the Joint Traffic 
Association. On September 1, 1894, he was appointed one of 
the receivers of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad 
and allied lines. Since January 1, 1896, he has been chairman 
of the board of directors and executive committee of the reorgan- 
ized railway company, with Eastern offices in New York, where he 
now resides, holding also a similar position in relation to the 
auxiliary companies of the Atchison system, embracing in all 
about two thousand miles of road. 

Mr. Walker was a member of the Vermont State Senate in 
1892-93, but has held no other political office. His army record 
from 1862 to 1865 was as follows: Entered as first lieuten- 
ant. Eleventh Vermont Volunteers (afterward First Artillery, 
Eleventh Vermont Volunteers) ; promoted to be captain, major, 
and lieutenant-colonel ; brevetted lieutenant-colonel for services 
in the Shenandoah Valley at battles of Opequon, Fishers Hill, 
and Cedar Creek. In 1895 he was chosen commander of the Illi- 
nois Commandery of the Mihtary Order of the Loyal Legion. 
Besides the Loyal Legion, he is a member of the Metropolitan, 
Colonial, and Lawyers' clubs of New York, and of the Chicago 
Club. He has received the academic degrees of A. M. and LL. D. 

In September, 1871, Mr. Walker was married to Miss Kath- 
erine Shaw of WaUingford, Vermont. They have thi-ee children, 
Roberts, Harold, and Ruth Elsa. 




JOHN HENRY WASHBURN 



THE family of Washburn is one that occupied a conspicu- 
ous place in England during the Civil War of the time of 
Charles I. It was then settled at Wash bourne, Whychenford, 
and Evesham, in Worcestershire, and was strongly attached to 
the royal cause. John Washbvmi of Whychenford, the then 
head of the family, exhausted his fortune in the service of the 
king, and was among the CavaKers who were taken prisoners at 
the battle of Worcester. His cousin, another John Washburn, 
of Evesham, came to this country, and as early as 1832 was set- 
tled at Duxbury, Massachusetts. He became the first secretary 
to the Governor and Company of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. 
His descendant in the seventh generation was Royal Washburn, 
pastor of the First Congregational Church of Amherst, Massa- 
chusetts, who married Harriet Parsons, a descendant of Comet 
Joseph Parsons, who came from England and settled at Spring- 
field, Massachusetts. 

John Heniy Washburn is the son of this couple, and also a 
descendant of Francis Cooke, one of the Mayfloiver company, 
and of Governor William Pynchon. He was bom at Amherst, 
Massachusetts, on October 27, 1828, and was graduated at Am- 
herst College in the class of 1849. Afterward he read law with 
Foote & Hodges at Rutland, Vermont, and with B. F. Agan at 
Granville, New York. He did not, however, enter upon the 
practice of the legal profession, but turned his attention to the 
insurance business. 

His first engagement was as a clerk in the office of the Wash- 
ington County Mutual Insurance Company, in 1850, and in 1854 
he was secretary of the Bridgeport Fire and Marine Insurance 
Company. In 1859 he entered the office of the Home Insurance 

402 



I 




TRc Badiiar^f nnu Ho 




V^ 



JOHN HENRY WASHBURN 403 

Company of New York, one of the foremost insurance corpora- 
tions in the eoxmtry, and has ever since been identified with it. 
Beginning in a subordinate place in its office in 1859, he became 
its assistant secretary in 1865, its secretary in 1867, and its vice- 
president in 1886, which office he has held ever since that date. 
His reputation as an authority on insurance matters is wide- 
spread throughout the nation. He has been president of the 
Tariff Association of New York, twice president of the Associa- 
tion of Western Underwriters, known as the " Union," and twice 
president of the New York Board of Fire Underwriters. His 
address before the Underwriters' Association of the Northwest, 
in 1888, has become a standard treatise on the business. Mr. 
Washburn has other business interests, being a director of the 
Chatham National Bank, the New York Mutual Savings and 
Loan Association, and the New Amsterdam Casualty Company, 
all of this city. He has held no political office. He is inter- 
ested in various religious and philanthropic works, being a 
member of the Broadway Tabernacle Church, and a corporate 
member of the American Board of Commissioners of Foreign 
Missions. He is a member of the Lotus and City clubs, the 
Chamber of Commerce, the Board of Trade and Transportation, 
of which latter he is vice-president, the New England Society, 
the Metropohtan Museum of Art, the Amherst College Alumni 
Association, the Sons of the Revolution, the Society of Colonial 
Wars, the Society of Mayflower Descendants, the Order of 
Founders and Patriots, and the Society of Descendants of Colo- 
nial Governors. 

Mr. Washburn was married on October 17, 1853, and has one 
son, WilUam Ives Washburn, a practising lawyer of this city. 




WILLIAM IVES WASHBURN 



THE first secretary of the Massachusetts Bay Colony was 
John Washbourne, the founder of the Washbourne, or 
Washburn, family in America. From him, in direct line, the 
subject of this sketch is descended. He is descended also from 
Francis Cooke, who was one of the Mayflower Pilgrims. On 
his mother's side he comes in direct descent from William Ives, 
who was one of the original signers of the New Haven Compact. 
All these colonists were from England, and played leading parts 
in the development of the new land. Of their descendants, 
ancestors of William Ives Washburn, no less than forty-nine 
took active part in the various colonial wars. In the generation 
immediately preceding that of our subject, and stiU surviving, 
John Washburn is a conspicuous business man of New York 
city, being vice-president of the Home Insurance Company. He 
married Jane Ives, and to them at Bridgeport, Connecticut, on 
August 30, 185J:, WOliam Ives Washburn was bom. 

He received his education at private schools in New York 
city, at Williston Seminary, Northampton, Massachusetts, at 
Amherst College, where he received the degrees of K. B. in 
1876 and A. M. in 1878, and at the Law School of Columbia 
University, under Professor Theodore W. Dwight, where he 
received the degree of LL. B. in 1878. He also spent a year in 
the office of that eminent lawyer and instructor, Austin Abbott, 
LL. D. 

With such preparation Mr. Washburn was admitted to the 
bar immediately upon graduation from the law school. He 
formed a partnership with Ambrose E. Stone, under the name 
of Stone & Washburn. This lasted only a year, and since that 
time he has been in practice alone, with a staff of assistants. 

404 



WILLIAM IVES WASHBUEN 405 

Mr. Washburn's practice has been successful in a gratifying 
degree. It has included a wide range of law cases, but in recent 
years has been more and more devoted to insurance law, general 
coi'poration law, and law involving ecclesiastical bodies. 

Mr. Washburn has been notary of the American Exchange 
National Bank since 1886 ; general counsel for the Marine De- 
partment of the Home Insiu'ance Company for some years ; 
counsel for the American Missionary Association, the Congrega- 
tional Home Missionary Society, the Revere Rubber Company, 
the Ammunition Manufactiu'ers' Association, and various other 
corporations, estates, and indi\'iduals. He was associated with 
Samuel Fessenden in the famous Worden will case at Bridge- 
port, Connecticut, and was counsel for the Madison Avenue 
Congregational Church of New York in its controversy with the 
Rev. Dr. John P. Newman. 

He has been a member of the Broadway Tabernacle Congre- 
gational Chm-ch since 1868, was its clerk from 1879 to 1900, and 
is now a member of its board of trustees. He has been a mem- 
ber of the executive committee of the Congregational Home 
Missionary Society since 1885, and its chairman since 1890. He 
is, or has been, also, prominently connected with various other 
important societies of the Congregational Church. 

He is judge advocate of the Fifth Brigade of the National 
Guard of New York, with the rank of major, and a trustee of the 
Hartford Theological Seminary. He belongs to the Bar Asso- 
ciation, Century Club, Alpha Delta Phi Fraternity and Club, 
Adirondack League Club, Congregational Club, Sons of the Rev- 
olution, Society of Colonial Wars, and Society of Descendants 
of Colonial Governors. 

He was married, on November 15, 1883, to Miss Carrie W. 
Fisher, daughter of the late Nathaniel Fisher, a merchant of New 
York city. They have had three children : Grace Ives Wash- 
burn and William Ives Washburn, Jr., now living, and Nathalie 
Fisher Washbiu-n, deceased. The family home in New York 
city is at No. 39 West Forty-seventh Street, and in the country 
at " Cedarcroft," at Greenwich, Connecticut. 



WILLIAM HENRY WEBB 



THE founder of Webb's Academy and Home for Ship-builders, 
a costly institution of admirable benevolence, reckoned his 
American ancestry from Richard Webb, who came from Glouces- 
tershire, England, and settled in Boston in the first years of that 
colony's existence. In the seventh generation from him, Isaac 
Webb was born at Stamford, Connecticut, in 1794. At an early 
age he was apprenticed to the famous ship-builder, Henry Eck- 
ford. After serving his apprenticeship he formed a partnership 
with two of his fellow-apprentices, under the name of Webb, 
Smith & Dimon. They built a number of noted vessels, includ- 
ing the Robert Fulton, the second steamer ever constructed. In 
1825 Isaac Webb and his former chief formed a partnership, 
which was ended only by Mr. Eckford's retirement in extreme 
old age. Then the firm became that of Isaac Webb & Co., and 
then Webb & Allen. 

Wilham Henry Webb, son of Isaac Webb, was boi-n in this 
city on June 19, 1816. He was educated in the Columbia Col- 
lege Grammar School, and began the study of marine archi- 
tecture. By the time he was twenty-three he had built under 
sub-contract with his father three packet-ships and two smaller 
vessels. In 1839 he sailed on one of these ships, the Netv York, 
for a much-needed rest in Europe. The death of his father 
summoned hina home in the following year, when he succeeded 
the latter in business, forming a partnership with Mr. Allen, his 
father's old partner, which lasted until Mr. Allen's retirement, in 
1843. For thirty years thereafter Mr. Webb continued the busi- 
ness alone. A record of the output of his yards would fall little 
short of an epitome of the history of American shipping. Among 
his achievements may be recalled the building of the Cherokee, 



406 



WILLIAM HENRY WEBB 407 

in 1848, the first steamship run between New York and Savan- 
nah ; the General Admiral., built in 1858 for the Russian navy ; 
and the ram Dunderherg, built duiing the Civil War and afterward 
purchased by the French government. When he finally retired 
from business, in 1872, he had built more than one hundred and 
fifty vessels, and was the owner, wholly or partly, of more than 
fifty, most of them from his own yards. 

He received honors from several of the sovereigns of Eiirope, 
in addition to the unmeasured esteem of his fellow-countrymen. 
He might easily have filled many important political offices. 
Such places, however, he declined to seek, contenting himself 
with being for fourteen years president of the Council of Politi- 
cal Reform in this city, and with being for many years active in 
municipal affairs and influential for good government. 

Mr. Webb's charities and public benefactions were numerous. 
Foremost among them is to be remembered Webb's Academy 
and Home for Ship-builders, a stately and commodious institu- 
tion on the bluff overlookmg the Harlem and North rivers, at 
Sedgwick Avenue and One Hundred and Eighty-eighth Street, 
in the borough of the Bronx. The erection of this building 
was begun in the fall of 1890, and on May 5, 1894, the entu-e 
property, of great cost and value, was presented by Mr. Webb to 
a board of trustees, to be forever a free home for the aged, indi- 
gent, or otherwise needy men who have been engaged in build- 
ing hulls of ships or engines for the same, in any part of the 
United States, and for the wives or widows of such men, and, at 
the same time, a free school of the highest class in which young 
men, citizens of the United States, may be instructed thoroughly 
in the art, science, and profession of ship-buUding and marine- 
engine building. 

Mr. Webb was married, in 1843, to Miss Henrietta A. Hidden, 
by whom he had two sons. His country home was Waldheim, a 
beautiful estate near Tarrytown. His city home was on FiEth 
Avenue. He was a member of the Centmy Association, and the 
Union League, Repubhcan, and City clubs. He died at his city 
home on October 30, 1899, leaving a large share of his fortmie 
for the prosecution of worthy works of benevolence and philan- 
thropy. 



CHARLES WHITMAN WETMORE 



THE name of Wetmore is of English origin, and is conspicu- 
ously identified with the history of the English colonies in 
North America, and of the United States which have been de- 
veloped therefrom. The first who bore it in this country came 
over in 1835, and settled in Connecticut. He was one of the 
seven original founders of the city of Middletown, Connecticut, 
which at one time was one of the principal mercantile centers of 
New England. Thereafter for many generations the family was 
identified with Middletown, though in time various members of 
it removed to other parts of the country and became men of 
mark and influence in their respective communities. 

Among the most eminent members of the family in former 
generations the Rev. James Wetmore of Middletown will be 
remembered. Beginning his career as a Congregational clergy- 
man at New Haven, he presently became a Protestant Episco- 
palian, and was ordained a priest of that church in the Chapel 
Royal, St. James, London, England. He afterward served in 
Trinity Church, New York city, and as a missionary at Rye, 
White Plains, Bedford, and other places in Westchester County, 
New York, and adjacent parts of Connecticut. He was a con- 
siderable writer upon theological and ecclesiastical subjects, and 
was described as " a gentleman of extensive usefulness, a father 
and exemplary pattern to the clergy." His son, Timothy Wet- 
more, became Attorney-General of the Canadian province of New 
Brunswick. 

The subject of the present sketch, Charles Whitman Wetmore, 
comes from that same Middletown stock, and inherits the char- 
acteristics that have marked the family with usefulness and 
success throughout many generations. He is the son of Fred- 



408 








' ^^/^^U 



CHARLES WHITMAN WETMORE 409 

erick P. and Sarah M. Wetmore, his father having been a pros- 
perous merchant who removed from the East to seek enlarged 
opportunities in what was then the far West, to wit, Ohio and 
Michigan. 

Charles Whitman Wetmore w^as born on October 6, 1854, at 
the town of Hinckley, in Medina County, Ohio, and spent his 
early childhood in that place. Later a removal was made to the 
State of Michigan, and there, in the high school of the city of 
Marqviette, his preparatory education was promoted sufficiently 
to permit him to be matriculated in college. 

For higher educational advantages he instinctively tiu-ned 
back to that New England which had been the home of his an- 
cestors. He went to Cambridge, Massachusetts, and there, in 
1871, passed the entrance examinations for America's most ven- 
erable institution of Uberal learning. Harvard University. A 
four years' eom-se followed, which he pursued with admh-able 
success, and he was duly graduated in the early summer of 1875, 
with the degree of B. A. Then, choosing the profession of the 
law as most fitted to his abilities and most congruous with his 
tastes, he entered the famous law school of his Alma Mater, and 
there, two years later, was graduated with the degree of LL. B. 
While at Harvard he was interested in rowing, and was a mem- 
ber of his class crew for three years, and of the university crew 
in his senior year. He decided to practise his profession in the 
great metropohs of the nation, where the range of legal activity 
is widest, the competition keenest, the reqidi'ements for high 
success the most exacting, and the possibilities of achievement 
most promising. After spending a year abroad he came to New 
York in 1879, and in 1881 he was admitted to the New York bar, 
and entered upon the career which has since been so brilliant. 

Immediately upon his admission to the bar, Mr. Wetmore began 
the practice of law in New York, and in 1885 he became asso- 
ciated in pai-tnership with General Francis C. Barlow. The lat- 
ter, like himself, was of New England ancestry, but was some 
twenty years older than Mr. Wetmore. Greneral Barlow had had 
a distinguished career in the army during the Civil War, and had 
since that struggle been Secretary of State of New York, United 
States Marshal, and Attorney-General of the State of New York. 
Association with a man of so great experience and prestige was. 



^-j^Q CHARLES WHITMAN WETMOEE 

of coui'se, valuable to the young lawyer. At the same time, Mr. 
Wetmore's fine scholarship and high abilities, not to mention his 
youthful energies, made him an amply worthy member of the finn. 
The partnership lasted, vmder the firm-name of Barlow & Wet- 
more, until 1894, which was not long before General Barlow's 

death. 

Meantime, in addition to this conspicuously successful and 
profitable law practice, Mr, Wetmore became interested in other 
business enterprises, especially those relating to raikoads and 
industrial apphcations of electric power. In 1893 he became 
president of the North American Company, which place he still 
holds. He is deeply interested in the Milwaukee Electric Eail- 
way and Light Company, being at this time chairman of the 
executive and finance committees thereof. He is also a director 
and chairman of the executive and financial committees of the 
Cincinnati Edison Electric Company of Cincinnati, Ohio, and is 
similarly connected with various other corporations. 

Mr. Wetmore has not held pubhc office nor sought political 
promotion. His favorite sport and relaxation are found in 
yachting, and he has for many years been a conspicuous figure 
in the yachting world. Between 1885 and 1893 he sailed and 
raced the well-known yachts Naiad, Iseiilt, Nameless, and Liris. 
He has been actively, identified with race committee work in the 
Seawanhaka-Corinthian Yacht Club of New York since 1895, and 
is now chairman of that committee and a trustee of the club. 

Mr. Wetmore is also a member of the University Club, the 
Harvard Club, the Down-Town Association, and the Bar Asso- 
ciation of the city of New York, and of the Nassau County Club 
of Long Island. 

Mr. Wetmore was married, on October 6, 1891, to Miss Eliza- 
beth Bisland of New York. They have no children. Their 
winter home is in New York city, and their summer home is on 
Center Island, Oyster Bay, Long Island. 



gjo 





^-^' 





CHARLES WHANN 



IN the halcyon days "before the war," meaning, of course, 
the Civil War, the name of Wilham Whann was among 
the best-known in the great Southern metropolis of New 
Orleans. It was borne by a man descended from that sturdy, 
thrifty, and progressive Scotch stock which contributed to the 
upbuilding of the Virginia Colony, and which comprised not 
a few of the " first famihes " of the " Old Dominion." Mr. 
Whann was bom in Virginia, but spent most of his active life 
in New Orleans. He was a man of numerous activities, and 
achieved marked success in them all. He was one of the fore- 
most bankers of that city, and an acknowledged leader of its 
financial life. He was the owner of one of the largest of those 
hues of towboats which formed so essential an adjunct to the 
commercial greatness of the city, boats flying his flag being fa- 
miliar all along the Lower Mississippi and at the passes of the 
delta. He was the president, also, of the principal telegraph 
company in that part of the country. Indeed, his name was 
known and respected, and his influence felt, throughout all the 
business world of the South and Southwest. 

In himself William Whann united the Scotch Covenanter and 
the Cavalier. It was fitting, then, that he should add the Puri- 
tan strain to the family in his choice of a wife. Miss Georgiana 
Stickney was of Massachusetts birth and of Puritan ancestry. 
The famous Adams family, which gave to the republic two of 
its early Presidents and most valuable statesmen in John and 
John Qviincy Adams, was among her blood-relations. She be- 
came the wife of William Whann, and spent much of her hfe in 
a Southern home. 

The son of this couple, Charles Whann, was born in the city 



411 



412 CHARLES WHANN 

of New Orleans, Louisiana, on February 17, 1857. That was a 
troublous time in the histoiy of the nation and of New Orleans. 
Not a few of the residents of that city, seeing the coming of 
the storm of war, hastened to leave it for a more secure abode. 
Others remained faithful to it, enduring its varying fortunes. 
Of these latter some, in turn, afterward sought other scenes 
when the war had passed away. 

Among these last Charles Whann is to be numbered. His 
early life was spent in New Orleans, and part of his education 
was acquired there. Then he came North, and lived and studied 
for a time in Brooklyn, New York, and also in New Hampshire. 
Thus he became acclimated to the life and business methods of 
the North, and on reaching manhood chose to make his home 
permanently in this part of the country. 

His first business experience was gained in the dry-goods com- 
mission house of Denny, Poor & Co. of New York. There he 
mastered the sound principles of dealing which are common to 
all legitimate and successful lines of business. But the dry- 
goods trade did not sufficiently appeal to him to lead him to 
adopt it permanently. New York was then, as now, the financial 
center of the country, and its financial operations greatly ap- 
pealed to him. Moreover, his father had been a banker, and a 
taste for that caUing had possibly been inherited. 

At any rate, after serving his apprenticeship in the dry-goods 
trade, Mr. Whann left the fii-m which had first employed him, 
and secured an engagement in the banking house of Edmund D. 
Randolph & Co. of New York. There he felt more at home and 
better satisfied. He apphed himself diligently to mastering the 
details of the business and to perfecting his knowledge of finan- 
cial operations. His career in that house was successful, from 
the point of view both of himself and of his employers. 

Nor was his earlier experience in another calling by any means 
unprofitable. Upon the face of it, there seems little in common 
between dry-goods and banking. Nevertheless, there are many 
principles of business which prevail in both, and which are 
essential to success in either. These he had acquired in the 
one, and he made good use of them in the other. Moreover, 
there is much in business discipline and in the cultivation of 
the business faculties. These advantages had been enjoyed by 



CHARLES WHANN 413 

him in the dry-goods trade, and they were of profit to him when, 
he entered the vastly different practices and methods of Wall 
Street. The result was that he rapidly rose in the esteem of his 
employers, and seemed assiu'ed of a long and profitable connec- 
tion with the firm of Randolph & Co. 

Such, however, was not his own intention. He meant to be- 
come the master spirit of a firm of his own. When a fitting 
opportunity came, Mr. Whann opened an office of his own, and 
entered upon business operations upon his own account. His 
business is that of a stock-broker, dealing in general Unes of sound 
securities, but paying especial attention to sales of railroad and 
municipal bonds. In this business he has achieved a gratifying 
success. His place in the financial world has long been recog- 
nized as secure and honorable, and his office is a well-known 
center of important transactions. 

Mr. Whann has not found time nor developed inchnation for 
seeking many extraneous interests, business or political. He has 
not been a poHtieian in the ordinary sense of the word, certainly 
not an office-seeker. His only ofiice has been that of justice of 
the peace in the town of Pelham, Westchester County, New 
York, in which dehghtful suburb he makes his home. That is 
an office which betokens the esteem in which he is held by his 
neighbors, more than any considerable participation in poUtics. 

Mr. Wbann is a member of a few select social organizations, 
among which may be mentioned the Lawyers' Club and the 
Seawanhaka Corinthian Yacht Club of New York. 

He was mamed in New York, in 1886, to Miss Lillian A. Mc- 
Clelland, who died on August 23, 1897, leaving him one son, 
Charles Whann, Jr. 




CLARENCE WHITMAN 



IN the foremost rank of New York's mercantile interests is 
the trade in dry-goods. Not only is the city the great import 
mart for foreign goods, but it has long enjoyed equal preeminence 
as the chief domestic market and center of distinction. In New 
York are the agencies and commission houses of all the greatest 
manufacturing establishments of the New England and other 
States, and the wholesale and jobbing houses to which trades- 
men from aU parts of the United States turn their supphes. The 
" dry-goods district " is one of the well-known parts of New 
York, and one of the richest centers of storage of goods 
and of transaction of business to be found in all the world. 
Its leaders of business are what would in old times have been 
called merchant princes, with reference to their wealth, then* 
leadership of affairs, and their dominant place in relation to the 
whole business community. 

Prominent among the dry-goods merchants of New York is 
Clarence Whitman, head of the firm of Clarence Whitman & Co. 
He is a native of Nova Scotia, having been bom at AnnapoUs 
Royal, Nova Scotia. He was educated at Cambridge, Massachu- 
setts, and nearly all of his life has been spent in the United 
States, and, indeed, in or near the city of New York, 

He was between sixteen and seventeen years of age when, in 
186-i, he began business life as an employee of J. C. Howe & Co., 
a dry-goods commission house of Boston, Massachusetts. There 
he began his practical education in the business to which his 
life has largely been devoted and in which he has attained excep- 
tional success. Later he entered the employ of James M. Beebe 
& Co., also of Boston. In 1866, however, he left the New Eng- 
land metropolis and came to New York, where he entered the 



iU 



CLAEENCE WHITMAN 415 

service of J. S. & E. Wriglit & Co., dry-goods comroissiou mer- 
chants. This firm was in time succeeded by that of Wright, 
Bhss & Fabyan, and that in turn was reorganized into the 
present well-known firm of Bhss, Fabyan & Co. 

Mr. Whitman spent nine years in the service of this house, and 
then left it to join his brother, E. C. Whitman, with whom he 
presently fonned a partnership, under the style of E. C. & C. 
Whitman, which at a later date became known as Clarence Whit- 
man & Co., as at the present time, Mr. Whitman being, of course, 
its head. 

This firm is the selling agent for a number of important manu- 
factories, including the Ponemah Mills of Taftville, Connecticut, 
the Stevens Manufactirring Company, the Barnaby Manufactur- 
ing Company, and the Davol Mills of Fall River, Massachusetts, 
the Wauregan Mills of Wauregan, Connecticut, and the Wilkes- 
barre Lace Manufacturing Company of Wilkesbarre, Pennsyl- 
vania. In addition to this extensive business, Mr. Whitman is 
interested in several other enterprises. He was the organizer 
and is vice-president of the Pantasote Leather Company of Pas- 
saic, New Jersey, and is treasurer of the Wilkesbarre Lace 
Manufacturing Company of Wilkesbarre, Pennsylvania, and a 
director of the Trust Company of New York. 

Mr. Whitman is a member of the New England Society of 
New York, and of the Lawyers', Merchants', Riding, and Union 
League clubs. 

He was man-ied at Andover, Massachusetts, to Miss Mary 
Hoppin Morton, daughter of the late Chief Justice Morton of 
Massachusetts. Mr. and ^Irs. Whitman have four children, as 
follows : Clarence Morton Whitman, Harold Cutler Whitman, 
Esmond Whitman, and Grerald Whitman. They make their 
home in New York city, and then* summer home on a large 
country estate at Katonah, New York. 






STEWART LYNDON WOODFORD 



THE founder of the Woodford family in America was Thomas 
Woodford, who came from Boston, in Lincolnshire, Eng- 
land, and landed at Plymouth, Massachusetts, in 1635, and was 
a founder of Hartford, JJonnecticut, and of Northampton, Mas- 
sachusetts. One of his direct descendants was Josiah Curtis 
Woodford, who came to New York and became a merchant. He 
married Susan Terry, and to them was born, in New York city, 
on September 3, 1835, a son, to whom was given the name of 
Stewai-t Lyndon Woodford. 

Young Woodford was educated at home and in primary schools, 
and then at the Columbia College Grammar School. His sopho- 
more and junior years of college life were spent at Yale, and the 
senior year at Columbia, where he was graduated with the degree 
of B. A. in the class of 1854. Since that time he has received 
the degree of M. A. from Yale, Columbia, and Trinity colleges, 
that of LL. D. from Trinity and Dickinson, and that of D. C. L. 
from Syracuse University. On leaving college, he began the 
study of law in this city ; but the failure of his father compelled 
him to enter upon the earning of a livelihood. For a time he 
worked as a reporter, bookkeeper, tutor, etc.; then he resumed 
his law studies, and in 1857 was admitted to the bar. He formed 
a partnership with a former classmate at Yale, Thomas Gr. Ritch, 
in 1858, and has maintained the association ever since. 

Apart from the regular practice of the law, in which he has 
been eminently successful, Mr. Woodford has been much engaged 
in pubUc services. He was appointed messenger of the New 
York Electoral College in December, 1860, to convey to Wash- 
ington its vote for Lincoln and Hamlin. The next March he 
was appointed Assistant United States Attorney in New York. 

416 




..^^L 



STEWAKT LYNDON WOODFORD 417 

In 1862 lie enlisted in the army, became successively captain, 
lieutenant-colonel, chief of staff to General Gillmore, colonel 
(for gallantry on the field), brevet brigadiei'-general, and Military 
Governor of Charleston, South Carohna, and of Savannah, 
Georgia. In 1866 he was elected Lieutenant-Governor of New 
York for two years. He was the Republican candidate for Gov- 
ernor of New York in 1870, and was reaUy elected, but was 
counted out by the fraudulent work of the Tweed Ring in 
favor of John T. Hoffman. In 1872 he was elected to Congress 
from the Third District of New York, and the same year was 
chosen elector at large, and was president of the New York Elec- 
toral College which voted for President Grant for a second tei-m. 
In 1875 he aided the Republicans of Ohio in their great fight for 
sound money, and by his debate with General Thomas Ewing 
tiu'ued the scale in their favor. From 1877 to 1883 he was 
United States District Attorney in New York. In 1896 he was 
one of the commissioners who prepared the charter for the en- 
larged city of New York. In 1897 he was sent by President 
McKinley as minister to Spain, and served with distinction in 
the trying times before the war with that country. On the sev- 
ering of diplomatic relations with Spain, on April 21, 1898, he 
left Madrid and returned to New York, where he resumed the 
practice of his profession with his old firm. 

Mr. Woodford is a director and general counsel of the Metro- 
politan Life Insurance Company, a trustee of the Frankhn Trust 
Company and the City Savings Bank, and resident American 
trustee of the Svea Fire and Life Insurance Company of Swe- 
den. He is a member of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion, 
the MiUtary Order of Foreign Wars, the Society of Colonial 
Wars, the New England Society, the Sons of the American Rev- 
olution, the Order of Founders and Patriots, the University, 
Lawyers', Union League (Brooklyn), and Hamilton clubs, and 
the Phi Beta Kappa Society. 

He was married, on October 15, 1857, to Miss Julia Evelyn 
Capen. They have had one son and three daughters, of whom 
only one daughter. Miss Susan Curtis Woodford, now survives. 
Mi's. Woodford died on June 14, 1899. 



A. M. YOUNG 



ONE of the most prominent and energetic leaders in the 
electrical field is Alden M. Young of New York. Mr. 
Young is a native of New York State, having been born at 
Hadley, Saratoga County, September 6, 1853. After receiving 
a good early education, he began work as a telegrapher in the 
employment of the Atlantic and Pacific Telegraph Company, at 
Fort Plain, New York, where he took charge of the local office. 
His advancement was rapid, and in quick succession he held the 
position of manager at Saratoga in 1871, Syracuse in 1872, Albany 
in 1873, and Buffalo in 1874-77. He was but just twenty-one 
years of age when he assumed charge of the Buffalo office. In 
i878 he was transferred to New l^ork city, where he remained 
until 1880. Mr. Young then made his residence at Waterbury, 
Connecticut, and organized a telephone company. He acted as 
its manager for ten years. Having become interested in electric 
fighting, Mr. Young, about 1890, organized in Waterbury its 
first and only electric-lighting company. From that time on his 
interests in electrical companies have rapidly increased. Having 
gained control in 1892 of the old Waterbury Horse Raih'oad 
Company, he reorganized it into the Waterbury Traction Com- 
pany, and later merged it with the lighting company. This con- 
solidated company, in which Mr. Young retained a controlling 
interest, now operates all the street-cars and electric lights in 
Waterbury. 

To increase further his business the New England Engineering 
Company, of which Mr. Young is the president, was incorpo- 
rated in 1890 in Waterbury. It conducts an immense business 
in installing electric-light plants, railways, and power stations. 
The plants are in New London, Norwich, and a dozen other towns 



418 



A. M. YOUNG 419 

in Connecticut, in Palmer, Massachusetts, in Poughkeepsie and 
several other New York towns, and in Paterson, Elizabeth, Do- 
ver, Somerville, Morristown, and Boonton, New Jersey. 

In addition to being president of the New England Engineer- 
ing Company, Mr. Young is secretary of the Waterbury Trac- 
tion Company, president of the Central Railway and Electric 
Company of New Britain, Connecticut; secretaiy of the Nor- 
wich (Connecticut) Gras and Electric Company, and an officer in 
a dozen or more similar companies. One of the latest and most 
successful of Mr. Young's enterprises is the Kings County Elec- 
tric Light and Power Company. He purchased the franchise 
of this company in May, 1897. It was not long before he siic- 
ceeded in interesting some of the wealthy men of Brooklyn and 
Manhattan and organized a strong company. Its directors were 
Felix Campbell, president ; W. J. Wilson, vice-president and 
treasurer ; E. F. Peck, secretary ; and Seth L. Keeny, Silas B. 
Butcher, William Berri, J. S. WiUiams, Hugh J. Grant, Walton 
Ferguson, Jr., Charles Cooper, and George E. Terry. 

With a capital of two million five hundred thousand dollars, 
almost unlimited backing, and new and improved methods of 
installing electric-lighting plants and of distributing the cur- 
rent in improved conduits, the new company immediately loomed 
up as a most formidable rival of the old Edison Company. Its 
brick power-house, which is now completed, occupies a site one 
hundred and sixty-five by two hundi-ed and twenty-five feet 
at Gold Street and the East River. It is equipped throughout 
with most improved and effective machinery. This company 
now controls all the electric-lighting companies of Brooklyn, 
and is one of the most powerful organizations of its kind in the 
United States. 

Mr. Young's latest enterprise is the consohdation of the elec- 
tric-light, gas, and electric-railway companies of Connecticut. 
A company has been formed which, under the name of the Con- 
necticut Lighting and Power Company, already controls some of 
the largest and most successful companies of the State. 

In 1898, Mr. Young was elected president of the National 
Electric Light Association, an organizatiou representing two 
thu'ds of the electric-lighting interests in this country. 



GEORGE WASHINGTON YOUNG 



THE ancestors of George Washington Young were of the 
race known as Scotch-Irish. His parents were, however, 
thoroughly Americanized, and from the name they gave to him 
it is evident that they meant him to be a genuine American 
citizen. His father was Peter Young, whose occupation was 
that of night superintendent of the great soap factory of Colgate 
& Co., in Jersey City, New Jersey. Peter Young married Miss 
Mary Crosby, and the two made their home in Jersey City. 

Of such parentage George Washington Young was born, in 
Jersey City, on July 1, 1864. His boyhood was spent at home, 
and his education was begun in the common schools of the city. 
In due time he was promoted to the high school, and completed 
its course with credit to himseK. Thence he went to the Scien- 
tific School of the Cooper Institute in New York, and completed 
its course. 

It is not to be supposed, however, that during these years he 
had nothing to do but study his books and recite his lessons. 
The family was in too narrow circumstances for that. It was 
necessary for him at an early age to engage in some wage-earn- 
ing occupation, and to combine practical business activities with 
his schooUng. 

He was only thirteen years old when he was employed as an 
office boy by the law firm of L. & A. Zabriskie of Jersey City. 
It was a good opportimity for him to study law and make his 
way into that profession. But that was not to his Uking, and he 
presently entered the employ of the Hudson County Bank of 
Jersey City. 

At the age of eighteen years he aspired to enter the military 
service of the country, and accordingly entered a competitive 

420 



I 



GEOBGE WASHINGTON YOUNG 421 

examination for appointment to a cadetship in the United 
States Military Academy at West Point. In this the thorough- 
ness of his schoohng served him well. He was successful over 
all competitors, and received his commission as a cadet from 
President Arthm-. But a little later his father died, and a 
change of plans became necessary, and therefore he relinquished 
the cadetship, and remained in the banking business. 

At the age of nineteen he was promoted to the position of 
receiving teller. Three years later he became secretary and 
treasurer of the Title Guaranty and Trust Company of Jersey 
City. This was rapid progress for so young a man, but it was 
based upon solid merit, and was followed by further promotion. 
At twenty-eight he filled a still more important place in a much 
larger field, being vice-president and treasurer of the United 
States Mortgage and Trust Company. 

Mr. Young has various other business interests of no httle 
magnitudes. He is a director of the Brooklyn Wharf and 
Warehouse Company, the Long Island Railroad Company, and 
numerous other concerns. To all of these he has devoted a con- 
siderable amount of attention, and his influence is felt in the 
affairs of all. 

Mr. Young has never held pubhc office, nor permitted the use 
of his name as a candidate for any, but is content with the status 
of a private citizen. 

He is a member of a number of prominent clubs in New York, 
including the La^vyers', the Players', the Colonial, the Racquet 
and Tennis, the Down-Town, the Democratic, the Ardsley, and 
others. 

He was married in Jersey City, on November 28, 1889, to Miss 
Natalie Bray of that city. They have two childi'en : Dorothy, 
aged six years, and George Washington, Jr., aged thi'ee years. 



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